Page 10 - DMEA Week 17 2020

DMEA PETROCHEMICALS DMEA
Oman’s $6.7bn petchem venture nears completion
OMAN
At full capacity
the complex wll produce 1.1mn tpy of petrochemicals.
OMAN’S flagship $6.7bn petrochemicals pro- ject near the port of Sohar is inching closer to launch.
Officials at state-owned OQ, formerly known as Oman Oil & Orpic Group, announced recently that a key component at the giant Liwa Plastics complex had reached a “major milestone” in its construction.
The 1mn tonne per year (tpy) natural gas liq- uids (NGL) extraction plant at Fahud that will serve as the project’s midstream section com- pleted its first test run last week, OQ officials said.
“Major milestone achieved on April 24 when Fahud NGL extraction plant successfully passed its 72-hour runs test, exceeding the contractual NGL recovery guaranteed figures,” a senior offi- cial posted on social media. “Hats off to the team that made this possible despite the extreme con- straints faced due to non-availability of critical vendors and tough [coronavirus] COVID-19 mobility restrictions of resources and materials!”
Liwa Plastics is the crown jewel in OQ’s so-called series of “transformational projects,” aimed at extracting more value from Oman’s oil and gas by expanding its downstream industry.
Oman Oil & Orpic Group broke ground on the NGL extraction plant three years ago. The facility will extract NGLs from the North Oman gas grid, providing feedstock for Liwa Plastics’ main integrated complex some 300 km down- stream at Sohar via pipeline. The pipeline was declared ready for launch in late February.
South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construc- tion and Japan’s Mitsui won an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth $700mn to build the extraction plant.
Work on the main facilities at Sohar is also nearing completion. The centrepiece is an 880,000 tpy mixed feed cracker designed to pro- cess 36,000 barrels per day (bpd) of light ends from the adjoining Suhar refinery, and 24,000 bpd of NGLs from Fahud.
At full capacity, the complex will produce 1.1mn tpy of petrochemicals, including 800,000 tpy of polyethylene and 215,000 tpy of polypro- pylene. This will combine with OQ’s existing 300,000 tpy of polymer capacity at the port.
OQ has not offered guidance on the time- frame for Liwa Plastics’ commissioning and production launch. ™
Iran expects 30% fall in petrochemical export revenues
IRAN
IRAN’S petrochemical export revenues will contract by nearly one-third year on year given market impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, according to the Iranian govern- ment-owned Press TV broadcaster.
The revenues would shrink by at least 30%, a report from parliament’s Research Center cited by the media outlet has concluded. Depressed prices as well as problems with the transporta- tion of goods across borders and by sea amid pandemic restrictions would be the main cause, the report added. Press TV gave an official fig- ure of $12bn per annum for Iran’s petrochemical earnings.
The slump in demand was expected to make a clear and immediate impact on Iran’s sales of
methanol, liquefied petroleum gas and aromat- ics, while it was predicted that demand for other products such as polymers, urea and ammonia would gradually decrease over coming months.
Petrochemical exports have served as an increasingly important component of Iran’s hard currency income since the US in 2018 re-im- posed heavy sanctions on the country. In May last year, Washington tightened its sanctions to include an effort to drive all Iranian crude oil sales of world markets. Petrochemical products are more difficult for sanctions enforcers to tar- get for reasons including their great diversity and the difficulty of tracing where petrochemical components of finished or intermediate prod- ucts originated. ™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 17 30•April•2020