Majis Industrial Services Company SAOG to undertake the management of the newly opened facility
Sensing the growing importance of salt-free water for industrial purposes in the Port of Sohar, the government has made a bold move to establish a new company to manage the Seawater Intake and Return System (SWIRS). Majis Industrial Services Company SAOG (MISC), a wholly owned government firm, will undertake the management of the newly opened facility and develop other water-related services in the Sohar Industrial Port Area.
SWIRS will meet the cooling water needs of six offtakers by pumping water directly through their own installation (pumps and pipelines). The six offtakers are Sohar Refinery Company (along with Oman Polypropylene), Oman International Urea and Chemical Industries, Oman Methanol Company, Sohar Power Company, Sohar Aluminium, and Shadeed Steel.
The system will also provide cooling water to individual smaller users by way of a common distribution network. These smaller users are Ethylene Dichloride Project, Sharq Sohar Steel Rolling Mills, Aromatics Oman, Oiltanking Odfjell Terminals Oman, and a planned Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Oman Petrochemical Industries, a joint venture of Oman Oil Company and Dow Chemical, will be supplied with cooling water from a second intake station planned at the port.
SWIRS's design allows for smooth flow of seawater through a dredged channel built between two breakwaters of a total length of 1,800 metres, stretching 600 metres into the sea. An oil boom barrier placed at the mouth of the intake prevents the ingress of any spilled oil. Measures have also been taken to prevent attacks from hundreds of tonnes of jellyfish that can potentially clog the screens and mechanical parts of the SWIRS, leading to a total shutdown of the pumping station, as well as the industries.
Solid Backing
The seawater intake system, built at a cost of RO22 million, is the largest of its kind in the Sultanate. The Ministry of National Economy has financed the construction of the facility, which has been placed under the administrative purview of the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE). Construction was undertaken by a consortium of Bahwan Contracting Company (BCC) and Sezai Turkes Feyzi Akkaya Construction Co (STFA) of Turkey.
While BCC carried out the onshore works, STFA executed the offshore component. Operation and maintenance is currently being handled by well-known Omani engineering firm, Bahwan Engineering Company (BEC), under a separate four-year contract awarded last year. When operating at full capacity, the Seawater Intake System will make available seawater at the maximum rate of 334,000 cubic metres per hour to meet the cooling water requirements of around 17 industrial plants located around the Port of Sohar.
At the heart of the system is a reinforced concrete-framed pumping station where each of the planned industries will install their own pumps to extract seawater and pump the same through their own mains. The station is fully equipped to screen and chlorinate the seawater before it is made available to the industries to extract. Also included in the works is a power substation capable of supplying power for the pumping station as well as for the seawater intake pumps to be installed by the industries.
After utilizing the seawater for cooling and other purposes, the industries will deliver the return seawater to a common outflow system for discharging it back into the sea. The discharge of seawater will be undertaken as per environmental criteria, and at stipulated temperatures that will not harm the marine environment.
Additional measures, such as oil barriers and anti-sediment screens, are also in place at the pumping station to prevent entry of any material into the intake system.
First off the block
Sohar Refinery Company, whose world-scale refinery plant is currently in the commissioning phase, was the first to install pumps last September in order to draw its requirements of cooling water. Sohar Power Company, which is developing a major power and desalination plant at Sohar, has also since followed suit.
Authorities have also initiated the process of augmenting the industrial port's seawater intake capacity to serve projects that were finalised long after the present intake system was conceived and designed. A contract is expected to be awarded in the coming months for the design of the second phase of the seawater intake and return system. The capacity of the intake channel has already been widened to handle 700,000 cubic metres of water per hour, to cater for future cooling water requirements.Sowmya Sri Rallabhandi
Picking up momentum
The Sohar Aluminium project gained momentum as EPCM Contractor Bechtel poured the first concrete of the bake oven, a critical facility on the schedule, in early May. The project has been progressing on schedule and major earthworks on site started on 12 December 2005. Major progress has been made at the site while keeping up the commitment towards safety and preserving of the environment.
The smelter is scheduled to start its first production of hot metal in 2008.
© Oman Economic Review 2006
