Page 12 - MEOG Week 03 2023

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

First crude cargo arrives

at Oman’s Ras Markaz

OMAN THE Oman Tank Terminal Co. (OTTCO) has the Strait of Hormuz.
received the first cargo of crude oil at its Ras Mar- The facility is located within the Special Eco-
kaz Crude Oil Storage and Export Terminal near nomic Zone at Duqm (SEZAD), which also
Duqm on the Sultanate’s Al-Wusta coast. houses the 230,000 barrel per day (bpd) Duqm
Without disclosing the source or quantity refinery which is being developed by OQ8, a
of the crude, OQ, OTTCO’s parent company, 50:50 joint venture (JV) between OQ and Kuwait
said last week that work remains ongoing at the Petroleum International. The $8bn facility is
facility, which currently has a capacity of 5.7mn expected to come on stream later this year fol-
barrels of oil, with plans to increase that level lowing the start of test runs during Q1.
dramatically. Data analytics firm Kpler reported Salem Marhoon al Hashemi, general man-
that a 1mn-barrel cargo had been delivered to ager of Ras Markaz Terminal, said: “The com-
Duqm on January 8. missioning of the terminal reflects our success in
OQ told local news outlet Muscat Daily that testing the efficiency of basic construction works
the development of the facility is part of the at the first phase of the project. We have received
company’s efforts to take advantage of Oman’s the first crude oil shipment and we will send it to
strategic location by finding alternatives to stor- the Duqm Refinery, which will be completed in
ing crude oil outside the Strait of Hormuz and the first quarter of 2023.”
then exporting it to regional and international In late 2021, Saudi Aramco’s trading arm
markets. agreed with OQ to explore the potential for
In a statement to the press, Hilal bin Ali al providing feedstock for the Duqm plant and the
Kharusi, OQ’s CEO of commercial and down- petchem complex and store oil at Ras Markaz.
stream operations and OTTCO’s chairman, said: “The parties will undertake a joint review of ATC
“Our success in receiving the first shipment of supplying feedstock to Duqm Refinery & Petro-
crude oil at Ras Markaz Crude Oil Storage and chemicals Industries Company LLC (OQ8), as
Export Terminal opens up wider horizons for well as possible offtake of oil products by ATC
moving forward towards executing other phases from OQ8,” said a joint press release.
of this strategic project, which is considered the According to the original plan, 65% of
biggest of its kind in the Middle East region.” Duqm’s feedstock will be provided by Kuwait,
He added that basic first phase construc- with local production providing the balance.
tion works have been completed, noting that When it comes into operation, the refinery will
the terminal’s commissioning would encour- produce diesel, jet fuel, naphtha and LPG, and
age investors from across the world to invest will feature units for hydrocracking, hydrotreat-
in other phases of the project, allowing it to ing, delayed coking, sulphur recovery, hydrogen
reach its maximum potential storage capacity of generation and Merox treating.
around 200mn barrels. This would see it com- Meanwhile, it will use up to 30,000 bpd of
pete with the global hubs of Fujairah and Sin- heavy crude oil to produce 1mn tonnes per year
gapore. Al-Kharusi said that Ras Markaz offers of bitumen, as well as 600,000 tpy of naphtha,
improved security owing to its location outside distillates and vacuum gas oil (VGO).™

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