Page 6 - MEOG Week 32 2021

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG
Oman eyes early 2022 launch for Ras Markaz Crude Park
OMAN
OMAN expects to bring the first phase of its Raz Markaz Crude Oil Park mega storage pro- ject into operation in early 2022 as the Sultanate seeks to become a global hub for crude trade.
While the first phase will feature an already impressive 25mn barrel storage capacity on an area of 10 square km, several stages of work will see that expand to 200mn barrels on a 40-square km site.
The project is being developed by OQ sub- sidiary Oman Tank Terminal Co. (OTTCO) and will be linked to the nearby 230,000 barrel per day (bpd) OQ8 refinery at Duqm under devel- opment by a joint venture of OQ and Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), which will receive around 65% of its feedstock from Kuwait.
In an interview for Duqm Economist, the quarterly newsletter of the Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (OPAZ), Salim bin Marhoon al Hashmi, OTTCO’s project general manager, said that marine works at Ras Markaz were completed earlier this year, with landside infrastructure surpassing 70% completion by the end of Q2.
“The infrastructure required to store crude oil during the first phase is almost ready, and operations are expected to start in Q1 of 2022,” he said.
Meanwhile, OTTCO CEO Ard Van Hoof noted: “We aspire to become the largest crude
oil storage project in the Middle East to serve as an important global crude oil storage centre due to the strategic location of Ras Markaz on the Arabian Sea, overlooking the Indian Ocean. The Park will meet the markets’ needs, connect- ing the markets in South Asia, [The] Far East and Africa.”
An 80-km pipeline connecting the terminal with the Duqm Special Economic Zone has already been completed, allowing crude to be imported at Ras Markaz and piped to the refin- ery for processing.
There are also plans to connect the storage park to the Main Oil Line via a 130-km, 42-inch (1,067-mm) pipeline to Nahada in central Oman and another 230-km line to channel crude from Saih Nihayda to Ras Markaz.
Van Hoof said: “We have started, in co-oper- ation with international consulting companies, preparing pre-feasibility studies to assess the possibility of connecting Ras Markaz Park to the (interior) oilfields in the future. This comes with [the] aim to supply the refinery with its crude oil needs and establish an alternative site for the export of crude oil.”
For export, crude grades will flow from Ras Markaz utilising gravity from tanks 110m above sea level to tankers anchored offshore. Mean- while, for imports four heavy-duty pumps will be used to move crude to the tanks.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 32 11•August•2021