MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Porner Group delivers the comprehensive planning of a Biturox plant for the SOHAR Refinery at the Sohar Port to ORPIC, the refining and petrochemical flagship of the Sultanate of Oman, said the company in its press release.
The bitumen plant, designed with two reactors, will be able to achieve an annual capacity of 300,000 t. In addition to providing the license and basic engineering, the Porner Group is responsible for pilot tests at the Porner Research Center, detail engineering, commissioning assistance, documentation and the training of personnel.
The Sultanate will be, for the first time, able to produce its own bitumen and be in a position to cover the national bitumen demand. Previously bitumen was imported exclusively from Iran and the United Arab Emirates, a high burden on the investment and expansion of the area’s infrastructure.
The Porner Group is the world leader in this technology that allows refineries to produce high-quality road bitumen from a wide range of crude oils and refinery feedstock. Since 1978 Porner has already awarded 46 licenses for Biturox plants around the world. Currently there are more than 40 bitumen production plants working worldwide based on the Porner Biturox technology.
The Sohar refinery is located in the industrial area of the Port of Sohar and produces diesel, gasoline, kerosene, LPG, naphtha and propylene. At a cost of USD1.8 billion, the refinery is being modernized and expanded. The completion of the newly built complex features five processing plants: vacuum distillation plant, a hydro-cracker, a delayed coker, an isomerisation plant and the Biturox bitumen production plant and is scheduled for 2016. With the 82,000 barrels from these new facilities, the refinery increases its processing capacity by more than 70 % to 198,000 barrels per day. This expansion allows ORPIC to cover the growing domestic demand for gasoline now and in the near future.
As MRC reported earlier, in May 2014, ORPIC said it had awarded two contracts for construction of a USD3.6 billion plastics production complex, the Liwa Plastics Project. The plant will be built in Oman's northern industrial city of Sohar, next to ORPIC's oil refinery and petrochemical plants. The Liwa Plastics Project is due to be completed in 2018, doubling ORPIC's profitability by allowing it to extract more value from Omani crude oil and natural gas, the company said.
ORPIC (Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company) is one of the leading companies in Oman and has two refineries in that country, in Sohar and Muscat. ORPIC is owned by the Government of the Sultanate of Oman and Oman Oil Company SAOC, the trading company created by the Government of the Sultanate of Oman for managing investments in the energy sector.
MRC