MMOSCOW (MRC) -- Oman's crude oil exports will drop by about 50 Mbpd when new refining capacity comes onstream in the northern city of Sohar by early 2017, said Minister of Oil and Gas Mohammad bin Hamad al-Rumhy, reported Reuters.
Rumhy said the refinery project had been due to be commissioned by the end of 2016, but there had been a delay so the commissioning date would be in Q1 of next year. The project would increase the Sohar refinery's capacity by between 65% and 70%.
"It will take an additional 70 Mbpd to 90 Mbpd. And with the increase in Oman's average oil production to exceed 1 MMbpd, we expect the drop in our oil exports to be 50 Mbpd compared to last year," Rumhy said in an interview.
He added that state-owned Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Co. (ORPIC) would seek to refine different crude mixes.
"In the future I can see ORPIC go shopping for crude oil, which is not the case currently," Rumhy said. "Refineries tend to do better when they have the option to refine different mixes of crude.
"So we will be importing different crudes to have a better yield, and to look at the needs of the local market in petroleum products."
We remind that, as MRC informed before, in May 2014, Orpic said it had awarded two contracts for construction of a USD3.6 billion plastics production complex, the Liwa Plastics Project. The plant will be built in Oman's northern industrial city of Sohar, next to Orpic's oil refinery and petrochemical plants. The Liwa Plastics Project is due to be completed in 2018, doubling Orpic's profitability by allowing it to extract more value from Omani crude oil and natural gas.
The project will boost Orpic's annual production of polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) to 1.4 million tonnes, increasing Oman's exports, while additional production of 1 million tonnes of plastics will help to develop downstream industries within the country, ORPIC added.
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