Oman’s DRPIC lets contract for Duqm integrated complex

Duqm Refinery & Petrochemical Industries Co. LLC (DRPIC), Muscat—a joint venture of state-owned OQ SAOC (OQ) and Kuwait Petroleum Corp. subsidiary Kuwait Petroleum International Ltd. (Q8)—has let a contract to Univation Technologies LLC to license technology for a new polyethylene (PE) unit at the petrochemical portion of DRPIC’s long-planned 230,000-b/d integrated refining complex under construction in the Duqm Special Economic Zone (SEZAD) in Duqm, Al Wusta Governate, on Oman’s southeastern coast along the Arabian Sea, about 600 km south of Muscat (OGJ Online, Oct. 2, 2019; Oct. 8, 2018).

As part of the contract, Univation Technologies will license its proprietary UNIPOL PE process and associated ACCLAIM High-Density PE (HDPE) catalyst technology for a 480,000-tonne/year line with the flexibility to shift between production of high-performance unimodal HDPE resins and linear low-density PE (LLDPE), the service provider said.

The flexible production capabilities of the UNIPOL PE process line comes as a key component of DRPIC realizing its objective to become a major player in the region by satisfying evolving customer demand for PE products in both domestic and key international markets, said Dr. Salim Al Huthaili, DRPIC’s chief executive officer.

Univation Technologies disclosed neither a value of the contract nor a timeframe for its work on the project.

This latest contract follows DRPIC’s recent award to Lummus Technology LLC to deliver proprietary licensing technology and the process design package for the complex’s 1.6-million tpy ethylene unit, NGL extraction units, a butadiene extraction unit, and a combined methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE)-1-Butene separation unit (OGJ Online, Sept. 23, 2020).

Primarily designed to produce and recover naphtha, jet fuel, diesel, and LPG, the Duqm refinery will include units for hydrocracking, hydrotreating, delayed coking, sulfur recovery, hydrogen generation, and Merox treating.

As of Sept. 25, 2020, the nearly $6-billion refinery project was 70.5% completed, DRPIC said in an Oct. 19 video post to its official YouTube account.

DRPIC most recently said it hopes to launch preliminary test runs at the refinery site by yearend 2021. Specific details regarding commissioning of the project’s second-stage petrochemical development have yet to be revealed.