Contract let for newly proposed Omani refinery
Privately owned Ras Madrakah Petroleum Industry Co. (RMPIC) and Chinese state-owned Yanchang Petroleum International Ltd. (aka Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group Corp. Ltd.) have let a contract to Genoil Inc. to deliver technology licensing for a newly announced 200,000-b/d grassroots refinery to be built on 800 hectares of land in the Duqm Special Economic Zone (SEZAD) at the Port of Duqm, on Oman’s eastern coast along the Arabian Sea.
As part of the June 30 contract awarded by RMPIC and Yanchang Petroleum subsidiary Beijing Petrochemical Engineering Co. (BPEC), Genoil will license its proprietary Genoil Hydroconversion Upgrader (GHU) technology, as well as deliver the process design package, training, advisory services, proprietary catalyst, and equipment supply for the project, the service provider said.
Genoil additionally confirmed BPEC previously was selected to perform the feasibility study, front-end engineering design (FEED), as well as deliver project management and engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services for the entire project.
Alongside the refinery itself, BPEC’s scope of EPC also covers nine crude storage tanks of 500,000 bbl each for a tank farm in Ras Markaz and other offsite installations, including a project export terminal and other necessary infrastructure such as an 80-km long, 28-in. diameter underground pipeline that will deliver feedstock from the Ras Markaz tank farm to the refinery, according to Genoil.
With all funding, licenses, permits, feedstock supply, and product offtake agreements now approved and in place, the proposed $2.4-billion refinery project is on schedule to begin immediately, Genoil said.
Publicly available information on RMPIC remains scant beyond what the privately owned company publishes on its website, where RMPIC confirms it has already secured critical pacts for the project, including three crude oil supply agreements for the refinery’s 200,000-b/d feedstock requirements, as well as three offtake agreements for purchase of finished products from the site.
Details regarding identities of crude suppliers and product buyers, however, have yet to be disclosed.
While RMPIC presumably will own the project, BPEC and Yanchang Petroleum will jointly operate the refinery upon its commissioning.
Parties involved in the proposed development have not confirmed a definitive timeframe for the refinery’s proposed startup.
The RMPIC refinery will be the second in the region, to be preceded by the long-planned 230,000-b/d integrated refining complex under construction in the Duqm SEZAD by OQ8 (formerly Duqm Refinery & Petrochemical Industries Co. LLC)–a joint venture of state-owned OQ SAOC (OQ) and Kuwait Petroleum Corp. subsidiary Kuwait Petroleum International Ltd. (Q8) (OGJ Online, Nov. 5, 2020). As of its latest project update for the period up to end-May 2021, OQ8 has reached 78.42% overall completion of the project for its targeted commissioning sometime in 2023.
GHU technology
Initially designed to upgrade high-sulfur, heavy Canadian oil sands crude production into sweeter, lighter fractions to enable long-distance pipeline transportation to refineries without requiring the addition of high-cost, viscosity-reducing diluents or light oil, the GHU process can be used in a refinery to convert atmospheric-vacuum tower bottoms and residue oils into lighter fractions for further processing into cleaner, high-value finished products, especially diesel fuel, according to Genoil’s website.
Robert Brelsford | Downstream Editor
Robert Brelsford joined Oil & Gas Journal in October 2013 as downstream technology editor after 8 years as a crude oil price and news reporter on spot crude transactions at the US Gulf Coast, West Coast, Canadian, and Latin American markets. He holds a BA (2000) in English from Rice University and an MS (2003) in education and social policy from Northwestern University.
