Oman is moving forward with its extensive efforts to expand the value and capacity of petrochemicals through expanded cooperation with international firms. Last week, the Duqm Refinery signed a contract with the Rotterdam-based LyondellBasell, whereby the Dutch company will provide its proprietary process technologies and services for the proposed 280,000 tons/year polypropylene plant and 480,000 tons/year high-density polyethylene plant.
The Duqm refinery is part of Oman’s plans to increase downstream petrochemical production capacity to 24 million tons/year by 2030 from 15 million tons/year currently. It has also selected OQ Chemicals’ proprietary technologies for the production of propanol, butyraldehyde, 2EH acid, neopentyl glycol (NPG), and 2-Ethylhexanol (2EH).
Oman is also developing the Liwa Plastics Project (LPP) industrial complex, located near the Sohar refinery. It will include a 900,000 tons/year cracker and downstream units to produce high-density polyethylene, linear low-density polyethylene, polypropylene, methyl tertiary butyl ether, and butene-1.
Oman’s petrochemical expansion was made possible thanks to the expansion at the Sohar refinery which was concluded last year. The $2.7-billion Sohar Refinery Improvement Project (SRIP) increased crude processing capacity by 82,000 bpd to 198,000 bpd. It also includes the installation of a new vacuum distillation unit, a hydro-cracking unit, a delayed coker, an isomerisation unit, and a bitumen blowing unit.
