MOSCOW (MRC) -- Orpic, the Sultanate’s refining and petrochemicals flagship, plans to establish a worldwide network of offices to support the marketing of the huge quantities of polymers that will be produced when its Liwa Plastics mega venture comes on stream in 2020, according to GV.
As a first step, the wholly government-owned entity has set up a new outfit to secure markets for the company’s output of polymers - notably polyethylene and polypropylene - an estimated 1.5 million tons of which will be produced annually when the USD 6.4 billion Liwa Plastics Industrial Complex (LPIC) is operational, a senior company executive said.
"We have created a new legal entity, namely Orpic Polymer Plastics, which will be fully owned by Orpic and tasked with selling the company’s polymer output in international markets," said Gilles Rochas, General Manager - Polymer Marketing. "Offices will be opened in key export markets, such as China, Singapore, Turkey and so on. Our goal is to have a global marketing footprint by 2020," Rochas added.
Speaking to the Observer, Rochas said Orpic’s decision to directly oversee the marketing of its polymer output - as opposed to the conventional practice of securing long-term offtake arrangements - is designed to ensure optimum returns for the company.
By cutting out the middlemen from the marketing and supply chain, Orpic is not only assured better margins on its products, but crucially it can also work towards building longer-term, mutually beneficial relationships with key buyers, he noted.
As MRC wrote before, 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.
In 2014, Orpic selected LyondellBasell's Spheripol polypropylene process technology for a new 300,000 tpy PP plant to be built in Sohar, Sultanate of Oman. Start-up of the Liwa plastics project is planned for 2018.
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.
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