MOSCOW (MRC) -- Duqm Refinery & Petrochemical Industries Co. LLC (DRPIC), let a contract to Univation Technologies LLC to license technology for a new polyethylene (PE) unit at the petrochemical portion of DRPIC’s long-planned 230,000-b/d integrated refining complex under construction in the Duqm Special Economic Zone (SEZAD) in Duqm, Al Wusta Governate, on Oman’s southeastern coast along the Arabian Sea, about 600 km south of Muscat, said OGJ Online.
As part of the contract, Univation Technologies will license its proprietary UNIPOL PE process and associated ACCLAIM High-Density PE (HDPE) catalyst technology for a 480,000-tonne/year line with the flexibility to shift between production of high-performance unimodal HDPE resins and linear low-density PE (LLDPE), the service provider said.
The flexible production capabilities of the UNIPOL PE process line comes as a key component of DRPIC realizing its objective to become a major player in the region by satisfying evolving customer demand for PE products in both domestic and key international markets, said Dr. Salim Al Huthaili, DRPIC’s chief executive officer.
Univation Technologies disclosed neither a value of the contract nor a timeframe for its work on the project.
This latest contract follows DRPIC’s recent award to Lummus Technology LLC to deliver proprietary licensing technology and the process design package for the complex’s 1.6-million tpy ethylene unit, NGL extraction units, a butadiene extraction unit, and a combined methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE)-1-Butene separation unit.
Primarily designed to produce and recover naphtha, jet fuel, diesel, and LPG, the Duqm refinery will include units for hydrocracking, hydrotreating, delayed coking, sulfur recovery, hydrogen generation, and Merox treating.
As of Sept. 25, 2020, the nearly $6-billion refinery project was 70.5% completed, DRPIC said.
DRPIC most recently said it hopes to launch preliminary test runs at the refinery site by yearend 2021. Specific details regarding commissioning of the project’s second-stage petrochemical development have yet to be revealed.
As MRC informed earlier, Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Company (DRPIC) has announced the suspension of the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) work for its proposed Duqm Petrochemical Project (DPP). The company seeks to assess the impact of COVID-19 on its future works.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia"s estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers" inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
MRC