Muscat: Oman LNG is embarking on further improvement at its plant, which will enable it to receive and process additional feed gas volumes in case such an opportunity arises.
“Additionally, due to differences in feed gas forms, such as in BP Khazzan, there are some upgrades required to the plant, which would allow it to run smoothly,” said Harib Al Kitani, chief executive officer of Oman LNG.
Spare capacity
Al Kitani said Oman LNG has a capacity to process additional volumes as the company is “currently operating at around 82 per cent of our production capacity nameplate of 10.4 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).”
“This is buoyed by the reputation of our industry and credibility of Oman LNG as a reliable and trustworthy supplier, coupled with the effective management of all the business processes within the company, plant reliability and the dependable delivery of our products.”
In September, natural gas production started at Oman’s tight Khazzan gas field operated by BP, in partnership with the Oman Oil Company Exploration and Production. This is expected to enhance natural gas for Oman LNG.The first phase of the Khazzan development is made up of 200 wells feeding into a two-train central processing facility, while the production is expected to plateau at 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day.
Recently, Salim bin Nasser Al Aufi, undersecretary at the Ministry of Oil and Gas, said the surplus gas will be used for enhancing LNG production from the spare capacity with Oman LNG.
Al Kitani further said that liquefied natural gas is sold through both long-term contracts and spot cargoes.
Oman LNG in its latest annual report said the company produced 8.5 million tonnes of LNG in 2016, against a production of 7.91 million tonnes in the previous year.
The company’s NGLs (natural gas liquids) production stood at 254,029 tonnes last year. As many as 133 cargoes of LNG were loaded from the company’s plant in Sur last year, which included 91 from Oman LNG and 42 from Qalhat LNG. Further, 39 natural gas liquids (NGLs) cargoes were also lifted in 2016, the annual report noted. Apart from regular long term customers, the company has delivered two spot cargoes of LNG to two regional destinations—Kuwait and Jordan—last year. In fact, by July 2016, the company had delivered 2,000 cargoes of LNG to the world.