OREANDA-NEWS.  Orpic’s (Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company) USD 3.6bn Liwa Plastic Project (LPP) has announced the award of five technology licensor contracts valued at around USD 80 million. The contracts relate to various LPP units, namely, NGL Extraction, PyGas Hydrogenation, MTBE, Polypropylene, and Polyethylene.

LPP is a steam cracker project, which will process light ends produced in Orpic’s Sohar Refinery and its Aromatics plant as well as optimize Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) extracted from currently available natural gas supplies. Thus, these technology contracts that have been awarded are of paramount importance to the different stages of the project’s production processes and have been chosen as a result of competent bidding and selection process.

The NGL extraction technology will be provided by Randall and will be put to use in a natural gas extraction plant located in Fahud. The plant will send its products through a 300km pipeline between Fahud and Sohar Industrial Port. The NGL extraction process involves the stripping of some components from rich natural gas in order for them to be used as feedstock for the plastics production process.

The technology for the PyGas Hydrogenation unit is going to be provided by Axens. This unit is designed to produce a number of high-value components, such as isoprene, benzene, toluene and xylenes. CB & I have been chosen as the licensor of the MTBE producing unit. MTBE (Methyl tert-butyl ether) is used as an additive in gasoline to reduce engine ‘knocking’.

A licensor contract has also been awarded to Basell Poliolefine who will be providing the technological requirement for the Polypropylene unit. This is a single bulk polymerization line that is based on the LyondellBasell proprietary Spheripol process. Products in form of pellets will be available in 25 kg bags, big bags and in bulk, for export and local markets. Polypropylene is used in a wide variety of applications, including packaging and labeling, textiles, stationery, plastic parts and reusable containers. The new unit will add significantly to Orpic’s existing polypropylene production capacity.

In addition, Univation will be the technology provider for polyethylene unit. Polyethylene is currently the form of plastic most in demand in the global marketplace. It will be a new two line polymerization and will produce components that are used by customers for the production of films and parts. As with polypropylene, the polyethylene will be available in pellet form in 25 kg bags, big bags and in bulk.

Earlier this year the LPP awarded two major contracts for PMC and FEED. The PMC contract was awarded to New Delhi, India-based Engineers India Limited (EIL). The FEED and Steam Cracking technology contract was awarded to Chicago Bridge and Iron Co (CB & I) which operates out of The Hague, Netherlands.

LPP is scheduled for completion in 2018 and is expected to double Orpic`s profitability by extracting significantly more value from every barrel of Omani crude and molecule of gas.