Oman Oil Refineries to invest in world-class storage terminal
Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company SAOC (ORPIC), the sultanate’s refining and petrochemicals flagship, is investing around USD 80 million in a major oil products distribution centre at Al Jifnain, just outside the Muscat Governorate.
The facility will cater to around half of the sultanate’s gasoline and diesel demand, with the balance to be met by existing depots in Sohar, Mina Al Fahal and Raysut (Salalah).
Speaking at the Oman Refining & Petrochemical Exhibition & Conference (ORPEC), Andres Suarez general manager – logistics, said the Al Jifnain Terminal will form the centrepiece of a strategically important initiative to build the logistics infrastructure necessary to secure the supply of oil products for the entire country.
ORPIC Logistics Company, a partnership between ORPIC and Spanish fuel transportation and storage giant CLH, will oversee implementation of the project. Total investment in the fuel storage terminal and associated multi-product fuel pipeline project is estimated at USD 320 million. About USD 80 million has been earmarked to develop the national fuel storage terminal at Al Jifnain. Located around 20 kilometers from Muscat International Airport, the facility will be built along the route of the existing crude oil pipeline that connects Orpic’s Mina Al Fahal (Muscat) and Sohar refineries.
The terminal will be a world-class facility and will comprise of 12 tanks with a total capacity of 171,000 cubic metres for gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel. A system of 18 loading bays will allow for fuel trucks, operating by fuel marketing companies, to be loaded in quick succession. Feeding the Al Jifnain Terminal will be a network of pipelines — totaling 290 kilometres in length — that will carry oil products from the Sohar and Mina Al Fahal refineries.
Unique in concept, these multi-product pipelines will be designed to transport different oil products — one after the other — through the same pipeline without any risk of contamination. Another pipeline will connect the terminal to supply jet fuel to Muscat International Airport.?
Local Omani engineering firm Gulf Petrochemical Services (GPS) was awarded the engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) to construct the multi-product pipeline network and storage terminal last December. GPS is supported by Abantia, a Spanish construction company and Diseprosa, an engineering company based in Spain.
When fully operational, the new storage terminal will help reduce tanker traffic on Muscat roads, from the current 500 trips from Mina Al Fahal daily, to around 130 daily by the year 2020.
All of the logistics assets, including the multi-product pipeline network and storage terminal, are due to be in place by mid-2017.
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