Page 4 - DMEA Week 10 2021

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

Progress continues

at Duqm refinery

Oman’s OQ and its Kuwaiti partner are continuing to make steady progress at its flagship
refinery project despite the halting of work on the integrated petrochemicals facility.

MIDDLE EAST PROGRESS is continuing at the 230,000 bar- of nine LPG storage tanks for EPC-2 offsite and
rel per day (bpd) integrated refinery and pet- utilities.
rochemicals complex at Duqm on Oman’s
WHAT: Al-Wusta coast under the watch of its Oman and Set-up
Less than 25% of Kuwait state-affiliated project company. When it comes into operation, the refinery will
construction remains The Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical produce diesel, jet fuel, naphtha and LPG, and
outstanding at the Industries Co., a 50:50 joint venture between will feature units for hydrocracking, hydrotreat-
Duqm refinery, with OQ and Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI), ing, delayed coking, sulphur recovery, hydrogen
work ongoing on began construction in the Special Economic generation and Merox treating.
both the facility and Zone at Duqm (SEZAD) in June 2018. Follow- Meanwhile, it will use up to 30,000 bpd of
connecting it with nearby ing a recent rebranding as OQ8, the company heavy crude oil to produce 1mn tpy of bitumen,
infrastructure. announced last month that the $7bn refining as well as 600,000 tpy of naphtha, distillates and
side of the project had reached 76.67% as of vacuum gas oil.
WHY: the end of 2020 ahead of anticipated start-up in It will initially be dedicated to processing
Duqm is a strategically 2022. crude oil from the tanks Ras Markaz storage
important project for Upon completion, 65% of its feedstock will facility, which is being developed to the south
Muscat and will allow be provided by Kuwait, with local production of Duqm. The capacity of the first phase of the
the Sultanate to garner providing the balance. facility had been designed to be 8mn barrels, but
more value from the oil it OQ announced last week that it had com- will now be constrained to 6mn barrels.
produces. pleted the construction of a $245.5mn gas supply The Ras Markaz project has an ultimate tar-
conduit, connecting the refinery to gas process- get capacity of 200mn barrels and will be linked
WHAT NEXT: ing facilities at Saih Nihayda. to the refinery by an 80-km pipeline due to be
Engineering design The 36-inch (914-mm) diameter, 221-km commissioned this year, though a moratorium is
work was halted on the pipeline has a throughput capacity of 25mn effectively in place over expansion of the facility.
integrated petrochemical cubic metres per day, matching the total capac- Al-Rumhy told Argus last year: “With the
facility late last year, and ity of the Saih Nihayda Gas Plant (SNGP) once storage and terminal, you build as you go along.
it is unclear if and when potential future expansions are carried out. But yes, it has a capacity of 200mn barrels … the
it will be resumed. Meanwhile, Mammoet was awarded a con- place is huge.”
tract last year covering inland and sea transport The key selling point is the area’s location

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 10 11•March•2021