The Omani government has allotted 3 million standard cubic metres per day (mmscm3/d) of natural gas as feedstock for the $6.5 billion Liwa Plastics Industrial Complex (LPIC) project currently under implementation by Orpic, said a report.

The allocation, coming amid supply constraints that have limited gas allotments to only vital consumers such as power generation and water desalination schemes, underscores the strategic importance of the LPIC project to the sultanate’s strategic national goals, added the Oman Daily Observer report.

Henk Pauw, general manager, LPIC project, said: “We have been allocated 3.0 mmscm3/d of gas for 20 years by the Financial Affairs and Energy Resources Council.”

He added that following LPIC’s commissioning, polymers production is forecasted to increase by more than 1.1 million tonnes, giving Orpic a total of 1.4 million tonnes of polyethylene and polypropylene production.

Moreover, Pauw described the LPIC scheme as the biggest of three strategic growth projects (the other two being the Sohar Refinery Improvement Project SRIP 2016 and the Muscat-Sohar Product Pipeline MSPP 2017), being undertaken by Orpic to achieve its vision of building an Omani integrated refining and petrochemicals business.