State-owned Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries (Orpic) will lay the foundation stone for the natural gas liquids extraction station of the $6.5-billion Liwa Plastics Industries Complex in January, a report said.

The Fahud project, which will be implemented by the Korean GS Company and Japanese Mitsui Company, is the third part of Liwa Plastics Industries Complex being built with an investment of $688 million, Musab bin Abdullah Al Mahrouqi, chief executive officer of Orpic, was quoted as saying in the Times of Oman report.

Orpic laid the foundation stone for the two parts ‘I and II’ of Liwa Plastics Industries Complex in Sohar Industrial Port last week, the report said.

It comprises the steam cracking unit at a cost of $2.8 billion, and the polypropylene and polyethylene production unit at a cost of $888 million. “The fourth part includes the 300-km pipeline to transport natural gas liquids from the Fahud station to Sohar Industrial Port at a cost of $112 million,” Al Mahrouqi said.

“The Indian Punj Lloyd company has started implementing the pipeline,” he added.

He explained that the natural gas fluids that will be extracted from the Fahud station will form 60 per cent of the raw material for Liwa Plastics Industries Complex and the starting of operation of the station will coincide with that of the other three parts of Liwa Plastics Industries Complex by 2020.

The company said its profit will double and there will be new commercial opportunities, in addition to many job opportunities. Additionally, the complex will support the development of plastics industry sector in the Sultanate.

The project is expected to increase the volume of plastic products by one million tonnes, which will raise the total plastic production of Orpic to 1.4 million tonnes of polyethylene and polypropylene, the report said.