Orpic to invest US$3.6 bln in Sohar Plastics Project

28-May-13

Orpic — the Sultanate’s refining and petrochemicals flagship — will invest around US$3.6 bln in the development of a massive petrochemicals scheme that will form the cornerstone of an ambitious downstream plastics-based industry in Oman. When completed by 2018, the Sohar Plastics Project together with the refinery improvement venture, will produce one of the most efficient integrated refinery and petrochemical complexes in the world. At the heart of the project is a steam cracker to be built adjacent to Orpic’s refinery at the Port of Sohar. An extraction plant to be built at Fahud, close to Oman’s gas production fields, will extract natural gas liquids (NGLs) from natural gas. These NGLs, together with the C2+ component, will be transported to steam cracker via a new 300-km pipeline that will run from Fahud to Sohar. Also as part of the plastics complex, Orpic will construct HDPE and LLDPE plants at Sohar, as well as undertake an expansion of its existing polypropylene plant. When operational in 2018, the Sohar Plastics Project will produce 420,000 tpa of high density polyethylene (HDPE), 420,000 tpa of low density polyethylene (LDPE), 215,000 tpa of polypropylene, 168,000 tpd of additional gasoline, and 46,000 tpa of additional benzene. These petrochemicals, together with those produced by existing Orpic plants, will account for six of the seven principal building blocks necessary to sustain the growth of a strong downstream petrochemicals industry in Oman, Al Mahrouqi said.