Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic), the sultanate’s refining and petrochemicals flagship, has received the ‘National Project of the Year’ award at the Meed Projects Awards 2018.

Orpic received the award in recognition of the state-of-art development and completion of the Suhar Refinery Improvement Project (SRIP), said a statement.

The awards were announced at a ceremony held at the Westin Mina Seyahi, Dubai, UAE; and recognised 19 GCC winners.

R P Singh, general manager, SRIP, said: “The awards are a leading stamp of quality and achievement for anyone operating in the GCC projects sector; as they not only recognise the construction element of project delivery but also consider the value and quality of a project throughout its entire life cycle.”

“The winning of this award is testimony to Orpic’s continuous efforts and contribution to the nation, and is an outcome of the concerted efforts of our highly experienced and dedicated team. It is noteworthy that 14,000 employees worked collectively at the peak of the SRIP,” he said.

“Our project is a multibillion-dollar capital investment for Orpic, that has been delivered in response to the need to upgrade Orpic’s refining capability in order to further maximise the value of Omani crude oil and guarantee that the sultanate’s increasing demand for fuel is met. I would like to take this opportunity to thank MEED for this recognition and the whole SRIP team behind this achievement,” he added.

Through SRIP, the Suhar Refinery has added 82,000 barrels per day (bpd) to its existing capacity of 116,000 bpd – taking the total capacity to 198,000 bpd. This indicates a 70 per cent growth in fuel production – 90 per cent for diesel, 37 per cent for gasoline, 93 per cent for kerosene, 93 per cent for jet fuel, 91 per cent for LPG, 175 per cent for naphtha and 44 per cent for propylene, said a statement.

Significantly improving Orpic’s environmental performance - SRIP helps fully meet the feedstock requirements of Orpic’s adjoining polypropylene plant, and a substantial proportion of the raw material needs of its aromatics plant, it said.

That’s not all – SRIP enables Suhar Refinery to cope with unforeseen changes in crude oil quality, demonstrating its importance at a national level in enhancing the extracted value from an oil barrel.

Aside from its immediate commercial benefits, SRIP also has an impact on other important areas of national economic development such as – ICV creation, employment generation, and SME support, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service