The Sohar Refinery Improvement Project (SRIP), with a capital expenditure of $2.7 billion, is scheduled for commissioning towards the end of 2016, a top official was quoted as saying by the Times of Oman.

SRIP will enhance capacity by 70 per cent to meet the growing requirement of petroleum products in the country as well as supply additional volumes to aromatics and polypropylene plants, said Musab Al Mahruqi, chief executive officer of state-owned Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic).

“With SRIP, Sohar Refinery will add 82,000 barrels per day (bpd) to its existing capacity of 116,000 bpd – taking the total capacity to 198,000 bpd,” he said.

“This indicates a 70 per cent growth in fuel production – 141 per cent for diesel, 34 per cent for gasoline, 98 per cent for kerosene/jet fuel, 93 per cent for LPG, 159 per cent for naphtha and 56 per cent for propylene,” he added.

Meanwhile, another major venture - Muscat Sohar Product Pipeline (MSPP) project - will entail a pipeline connection between Mina Al Fahal Refinery, Sohar Refinery with an intermediate terminal at Al Jifnain, as well as the pipeline connection from Al Jifnain to the new Muscat International Airport.

Al Mahruqi said that Liwa Plastic Industries Complex (LPIC) is one of the biggest among the three major projects being executed by Orpic over the next four years.

LPIC includes a steam cracker and its associated downstream units to utilise the refinery light ends and the C2+ from Oman’s natural gas in order to produce an additional 1.2 million tonnes of polymers annually as well as motor gasoline (MTBE), the Times of Oman report said.

The project, which will have a capital expenditure of $6.5 billion, is in the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) phase and is scheduled for commissioning in 2020, it added.