MUSCAT -- Sohar Refinery Company (SRC), which is close to completing work on its world-scale refinery at Sohar, has selected Engelhard Corporation of the United States to supply catalysts and additives for its Residual Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit. A contract award will be formalised at a ceremony due to be held at the Muscat InterContinental Hotel this evening. Senior executives from SRC and Engelhard Corporation, as well as local agents Energy Machine Services LLC, will attend the event.
The contract, valued at around RO5.35 million, marks Engelhard Corporation's first major foray into the Oman market. A Fortune 500 company, Engelhard Corporation specialising in environmental technologies and specialty chemical products. The company also makes catalysts for the petroleum industry, paper pigments and additives, and specialty pigments for the plastic, cosmetics, and construction industries. Besides inventing the catalytic converter, it is a world leader in emissions technology, creating emissions control systems for diesel cars, airplanes, big trucks, urban buses, and factories.
Engelhard Corporation led a field of five major catalysts makers to win the prestigious SRC contract. The company has been contracted to supply 6,662 metric tons of fresh catalyst, 2,400 metric tones of equilibrium catalyst and 734 metric tons of additives, which is roughly SRC's requirement of catalysts and additives for 12 months.
According to Suresh B Nair, Managing Director of Energy Machine Services LLC, around 5,600 metric tons of the contracted volume has already been delivered to SRC. The products were bagged and shipped in 40-foot containers from Engelhard's Savannah, Georgia, USA plant. Around 300 container loads of catalysts and additives have since arrived at Sohar Refinery's plant in a successful conclusion to a major logistical challenge, said Nair.
Construction of the Sohar Refinery is on track for a scheduled start-up in May this year. The plant boasts a Crude Unit with a capacity of 116,400 barrels per day (bpd) and a Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (RFCCU) with a capacity of 75,260 bpd. Major products are naphtha, propylene, gasoline, gas oil and other refined products.
Besides providing feedstock for the polypropylene project of Oman Polypropylene LLC (OPP), SRC will also supply naphtha and gasoline as feedstock for Aromatics Oman LLC (AOL), which is also under construction at Sohar. It is also expected to be partly integrated with the polyethylene project of Oman Petrochemical Industries Company LLC (OPIC).
Representing SRC at this evening's award ceremony will be Yaqoub Bilal, CEO, Ahmed Haddabi, Deputy CEO, Mohammed al Kindy, HR and Administrative Director, Mubarak al Namani, Finance Director, and C N Son, Refinery Director, among others. Engelhard Corporation and its Holland-based affiliate Engelhard de Meern BV will be represented by George L Vann Jr and Bruce Lerner, both Global Managers for Process Technology, Maarten van Vliet, Regional Business Manager (Process Technology), and Ad Roetgering, Executing Manager (Process Technology).
Energy Machine Services, which represents Engelhard Corporation in the Sultanate, is a leading supplier of products and services to the oil, gas and refining sectors. The company represents around 25 international manufacturers and service providers. It is currently executing a three-year contract for the servicing of all low voltage and high voltage electric motors of Petroleum Development Oman (PDO). The company also has an ongoing contract for the supply of wellhead equipment for PDO, among other contracts for the Ministry of Defence.
By Conrad Prabhu
© Oman Daily Observer 2006
