Orpic starts work on natural gas extraction unit in Fahud

Muscat: Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) on Thursday laid the foundation stone for its $688 million-natural gas liquids extraction plant in Fahud, which is part of the $6.4 billion-Liwa Plastics Industries Complex (LPIC).
The natural gas extraction unit, which is the third engineering, procurement and construction contract (EPC 3) for building the whole project, is located in Fahud in the Al Dahirah governorate.
Orpic had already started work on LPIC’s $2.8 billion steam cracker unit (EPC 1) and $888 million polypropylene and polyethylene units (EPC 2) last year in Sohar.
The ground breaking ceremony was held under the auspices of Sultan bin Salim Al Habsi, secretary-general of the Supreme Council for Planning and chairman of Orpic’s Board of Directors, in the presence of a number of officials and community members from the Wilayate of Ibri, Orpic’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and top management, as well as representatives from the contracting companies GS Engineering and Construction, and Mitsui & Co. Ltd.
“We are delighted to celebrate the ground breaking of the LPIC EPC 3 to build a state-of-the-art Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) extraction plant. LPIC is a key project for developing the downstream industry in Oman in order to enhance the petrochemicals industry and keep pace with the growing demand for plastics in the Sultanate and the region,” said Al Habsi.
“LPIC is the largest transformational project undertaken in Oman, which will contribute to the GDP (gross domestic product) of the Sultanate by 2 per cent and support creating a wide-ranging downstream industry in the Sultanate. Once completed in 2020, we are confident that LPIC will change Orpic’s product mix by extracting more value from natural gas and crude oil,” said Ahmed Saleh Al Jahdhami, CEO, Orpic.
“This Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) extraction plant will be linked via a pipeline with the project main plants in Sohar as part of an integrated complex that also houses the Sohar refinery, an aromatics plant, and polypropylene. Orpic’s operations will be them become one of the most integrated refinery and petrochemical operations in the world and will enable the company to extract the maximum value from Oman’s oil and gas.”
As one of the biggest transformational projects in the Sultanate, the $6.4 billion project is the largest of the three strategic growth projects undertaken by Orpic, namely the Sohar Refinery Improvement Project (SRIP), the Muscat-Sohar Pipeline (MSPP) and the Al Jifnain Terminal to fulfil its vision of building an Omani integrated refining and petrochemical business. This project will be the first-of-its-kind in the Sultanate and will enable Oman to take the downstream plastics industry to the next level.