11 October 2016
Muscat - The site preparation has been on and with the groundbreaking ceremony held on Monday, Orpic’s Liwa Plastic Complex Project (LPIC) begins the next step of construction. The year 2020 will see the operation of the plant, according to the plan. The ground breaking ceremony was held under the auspices of Sultan bin Salim al Habsi, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Planning and Chairman of Orpic. Speaking on the occasion, he said: “We are delighted to celebrate the ground breaking of an important and a vital project which is needed to keep up with the development in the Sultanate.

This project will contribute in enhancing the petrochemicals industry in the Sultanate, and keep pace with the growing demand for plastics in the Sultanate and the region. “We hope that this project will contribute to the improvement of environmental aspects and support the creation of a downstream plastics industry in Oman.” “The company is going through major expansion and this is the largest project with an investment of $6.5 billion, LPIC is the largest of the three strategic growth projects undertaken by Orpic to fulfil its vision of building an Omani integrated refining and petrochemical business,” said Salim al Aufi, Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Oil and Gas.

“We think this is a significant step for Oman. For the first time we are going to produce the most common plastic in the world, which is polyethylene, in addition to polypropylene. And because it is the most common plastic it will generate a lot of opportunities for downstream industries in the country.” “This would be a major step for industrialisation,” said Musab al Mahruqi, CEO, Orpic. “We are confident that once plant commissioning is completed in 2020, LPIC will change Orpic’s product mix by extracting more value from natural gas and crude oil.

Being located in Sohar as part of an integrated complex that houses Sohar Refinery, Aromatics Plant, Polypropylene and Steam Cracker Unit for LPIC, Orpic operations will be one of the most integrated refinery and petrochemical operations in the world and will enable the company to extract the maximum value from Oman’s oil and gas,” he added. The expectations are high for the project because it is the biggest contract Oman has had so far. “As a single plant, the contribution to the national GDP is 2 per cent. We expect other businesses to thrive in this area resulting in job opportunities. This project presents huge potential for SMEs,” said Hilal al Hinai, General Manager, CSS. Once the production begins in 2020, the plant is expected to produce 1.4 million tonnes of polymers and that is about 400 containers a day.

© Oman Daily Observer 2016