OREANDA-NEWS.   Orpic (Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company) organized a workshop for significant and expert regional and international engineering, procurement and construction contractors (EPC) to brief them on the forthcoming prequalification tender for its USD 3.6 billion Liwa Plastics Project (LPP).

The participating companies are considered potentially capable of carrying out works relating to one of LPP’s EPC work packages and they have expressed interest in participating in the tender.

LPP is the subject of keen interest among the prospective tenderers, reflected in the strong attendance at the workshop by major regional and international market players. The purpose of the workshop was to outline to the potential bidders the details regarding the implementation of LPP, its status, objectives and timeline, project participants, financing and sponsors, along with Orpic’s corporate growth strategy.

The most salient details relating to the EPC pre-qualification tender schedules to be floated in the following weeks were also discussed. Orpic also invited the participating EPC contractors to provide their feedback and enquiries with regard to the implementation of LPP and the EPC tenders.

“It made sense for us to brief this group of potential pre-qualifiers at this stage,” said Henk Pauw, GM of LPP, “we need to ensure that they have a complete a picture of what LPP represents as early as possible in the process. This session will help both us and contractors as we move towards qualification and beyond with what is one of the country’s most significant projects.”

LPP will include a nominal 900 thousand tonne per year (KTA) ethylene cracking plant, high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant, linear low density polyethylene plant (LLDPE), a new polypropylene plant to augment the existing one, MTBE plant, butene-1 plant and associated utilities and off-site facilities.

The petrochemical plant will be linked with the refinery, aromatics complex and polypropylene plant, making real Orpic’s stated vision of building an integrated refining and petrochemical business. The feedstocks being considered are NGLs (C2+) extracted from natural gas in central Oman and piped to the Sohar complex, mixed LPG produced in the refinery and aromatics complex, and dry gas produced in the RFCC unit and new delayed coking unit that will be part of the Sohar Refinery Improvement Project. Some of the materials produced in the petrochemical complex, including hydrogen, MTBE, pyrolysis fuel oil and pyrolysis gasoline will be returned to the refinery, aromatics complex and existing polypropylene plant, further boosting integration and efficiency levels.