Wednesday 07 / May / 2025
Muscat: Nexans, a French manufacturer of copper and optical fibre cable products for the infrastructure, industrial, and construction markets, has been awarded a major contract by Rexel to supply lead-free Hypron cables for Oman’s Liwa Plastics Industries Complex (LPIC) project.
The LPIC project will be equipped with Nexans’ instrumentation, fibre-optic telecommunication cables, and fieldbus cables, which will be supplied through the group’s established partnership with Rexel, according to a press release from the company.
The cables feature Nexans’ innovative Hypron design, which was developed and tested to provide an alternative to lead-sheath cables for onshore oil and gas installations, especially within refineries and petrochemical installations in moist areas where corrosive aromatic hydrocarbons are present.
Nexans’ Hypron cables contribute to a cleaner environment by eliminating lead exposure and emissions thanks to three concentric, co-extruded sheaths that provide water tightness, as well as resistance to inorganic and organic chemicals such as chlorine, as well as synthetic oils and aromatics, benzene, and petrol.
“It is a big honour for Nexans to contribute to the development of Oman by bringing our global expertise to the Sultanate’s large-scale and forward-looking projects, such as the LPIC,” said Orlando Vaquero, Nexans O&G Downstream ISP Global Market Director.
“The scope of Nexans’ technical capability, together with the complete ‘one-stop shop’ we offer in cooperation with Rexel, made the difference in persuading Orpic that we can deliver the quality performance and fast response they require,” he added.
The LPIC project will enter the commissioning phase by the end of 2018 and will be ready for commercial operation in 2020.
The Hypron cables for the LPIC project will be manufactured and delivered by the Nexans-Korea facility in Cheongwon, South Korea.
Worldwide demand for high- and low-density polyethylene is increasing, especially within Asia, where it is an important raw material for the production of various plastic products for both domestic and industrial use.
The Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) aims to meet this demand with its US$4.5 billion LPIC project, which is a vital element in the Sultanate’s programme to reduce its overall reliance on exports of natural gas and crude oil by further developing Oman’s downstream industry. Nexans is playing a vital role in the LPIC project by providing a variety of instrumentation and fibre-optic telecommunication cables that will be supplied via Rexel, the global cable distributor.
Orpic’s LPIC project is an example of the transformational journey undertaken by the company to diversify its business interests. The cutting-edge complex will include a refinery, an aromatics plant, a steam cracker, and downstream polypropylene and polyethylene plants, making it one of the best integrated refinery and petrochemical facility combinations in the world.
Thanks to the new facility, plastics production is expected to increase by one million tonnes, likewise boosting Orpic’s total polyethylene and polypropylene production to 1.4 million tonnes by 2020. Some 150 technicians and 350 operators will be required to manage the new facilities, which are also expected to create more than 1,200 jobs in the locality.
