Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) has awarded five technology licensor contracts worth US$80mn for its US$3.6bn Liwa Plastic Project (LPP), scheduled for completion in 2018
The contracts relate to various LPP units namely NGL extraction, PyGas hydrogenation, MTBE, polypropylene, and polyethylene, Orpic said.
LPP is a steam cracker project, which will process light ends produced in Orpic’s Sohar Refinery and its aromatics plant, as well as optimise natural gas liquids (NGLs) extracted from currently available natural gas supplies.
Orpic said that the NGL extraction technology will be provided by Randall and be used in a natural gas extraction plant located in Fahud. The plant will then send its products through a 300km pipeline between Fahud and Sohar Industrial Port.
The technology for the PyGas Hydrogenation unit will be provided by Axens. The unit is designed to produce a number of high-value components, such as isoprene, benzene, toluene and xylenes. Chicago Bridge and Iron Company (CB&I) has been chosen as the licensor of the MTBE producing unit.
Basell Poliolefine will provide technological requirements for its polypropylene unit. This is a single bulk polymerisation line that is based on the LyondellBasell proprietary Spheripol process. Products in the form of pellets will be available in 25kg bags, big bags and in bulk, for export and local markets.
In addition, Univation will be the technology provider for the polyethylene unit.
The project will boost Orpic’s annual production of polypropylene and polyethylene to 1.4mn tonnes, increasing Oman’s exports, while additional production of one million tonnes of plastics will help to develop downstream industries within the country, the Omani company said.
