Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) plans to develop a high-tech fuel storage and distribution terminal near Muscat, a report said.

The facility at Al Jifnain will be developed into a national strategic reserve in the next phase of its expansion, reported Oman Observer.

The joint venture set up by Orpic with Spain-based Compañía Logística de Hidrocarburos (CLH), a global logistics company, is the centrepiece of Orpic’s $320 million Muscat-Sohar Product Pipeline (MSPP) project, the report said.

Currently under construction with a capacity to hold 172,000 cu m of refined products, the new terminal will increase the storage capacity of fuels by 70 per cent, it added.

“As a second phase, Orpic Logistics is studying the construction of 1,000,000 cu m of additional storage capacity at Al Jifnain for starting the development of national strategic reserves. This volume is equivalent to more than 30 days of oil products consumption and would further increase the security of supply to the population,” Andre Suarez, general manager Orpic Logistics, was quoted as saying in the report.

“The new terminal will be equipped with 16 loading bays with capacity to load more than 600/700 trucks per day with products to be transported across petrol stations.

It also needs to be highlighted that the new terminal will be supplied by two multiproduct and bidirectional pipelines connected to Orpic’s Sohar and Muscat Refineries, which are the safest and most efficient transport media for oil products for medium distances,” Suarez added.