Ashraf AboArafe
Muscat, agencies – Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries Company “OQ8” announced the start of trial operation of the crude oil distillation unit in Duqm Refinery. In a step that paves the way for reaching operational readiness for all units of Duqm Refinery, which is the largest investment project in the refinery and petrochemical industries sector. The refinery has a refining capacity of about 230,000 barrels per day. The design of the refinery depends on the hydrogen cracking unit and the petroleum coke unit. When it is operational, it will produce liquefied petroleum gas, naphtha, jet fuel, diesel and sulfur, in addition to petroleum coke.
Hilal bin Ali Al Kharousi, Chief Executive Officer of the Commercial, Refineries and Petrochemicals Sector at OQ, Chairman of the Board of Directors of (OQ8), said: “The start of the trial operation of the Duqm Refinery is a development to proceed according to the plan set, as the trial operation takes a number of stages before reaching the maximum capacity, and then the commercial operation which is expected by the end of this year.
He added that all the support units in the project, with a completion rate of 97.5%, have been put into operation, taking into account the priority of safe operation of all units. And Al-Kharousi indicated that the start of the trial operation came in line with the progress made in the Ras Center crude oil storage project – one of the Okyo projects – in which the basic construction work of the first phase was completed, and two ships of crude oil were successfully received, in addition to the completion of the group’s “Marafiq” company and the Gulf Company. Thai Energy Development of the power and water plant; Which will provide the Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries (OQ8) and the Oman Tank Company (OTTCO) with energy and water through the production of 326 megawatts of electricity and 36 thousand cubic meters of industrial water per day, stressing that these projects are complementary to each other; Its completion is a positive development and an important step to boost investments in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm.”
It is worth noting that Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries is a joint venture between Okio Group and Kuwait Petroleum International.
