Press release

The Pörner Group delivers the comprehensive planning of a Biturox® plant for the SOHAR Refinery at the Sohar Port to ORPIC, the refining and petrochemical flagship of the Sultanate of Oman.

The bitumen plant, designed with two reactors, will be able to achieve an annual capacity of 300,000 t. In addition to providing the license and basic engineering, the Pörner Group is responsible for pilot tests at the Pörner Research Center, detail engineering, commissioning assistance, documentation and the training of personnel.

The Sultanate will be, for the first time, able to produce its own bitumen and be in a position to cover the national bitumen demand. Previously bitumen was imported exclusively from Iran and the United Arab Emirates, a high burden on the investment and expansion of the area’s infrastructure.

The Pörner Group is the world leader in this technology that allows refineries to produce high-quality road bitumen from a wide range of crude oils and refinery feedstock. Since 1978 Pörner has already awarded 46 licenses for Biturox® plants around the world. Currently there are more than 40 bitumen production plants working worldwide based on the Pörner Biturox® technology.

The $ 1.8 billion modernization project of Sohar Refinery

The Sohar refinery is located in the industrial area of the Port of Sohar and produces diesel, gasoline, kerosene, LPG, naphtha and propylene.

At a cost of $ 1.8 billion, the refinery is being modernized and expanded. The completion of the newly built complex features five processing plants: vacuum distillation plant, a hydro-cracker, a  delayed coker, an isomerisation plant and the Biturox® bitumen production plant and is scheduled for 2016. With the 82,000 barrels from these new facilities, the refinery increases its processing capacity by more than 70 % to 198,000 barrels per day. This expansion allows ORPIC to cover the growing domestic demand for gasoline now and in the near future.

In July 2015 Arab Business journals and online platforms reported on the above. (like Oman Daily Observer, Traid Arabia)

Sohar

Sohar, 230 kilometers northwest of the capital Muscat, with 140,000 inhabitants, is the fifth largest city of the Sultanate of Oman. It’s ideal geographical location on the Gulf of Oman has been used as a port for millennia. The city became one of the most important commercial centers of the Islamic world. Already in the 9th century, trade was booming at this sea port from India to China and East Africa.

The new, 2004 built, Port of Sohar, north of the city - a 50/50 joint venture with the port of Rotterdam - opened the Sultanate of Oman to many new trading opportunities. On the premises, located next to the actual port and the refinery, are several power plants as well as a methane plant.

Media echo (selection):

Process 13/08/2015 (EN)

Process 30/11/2015 (EN)

Trade Arabie 13/07/2015  (EN)

Total Energy Informatics 14/07/2015 (EN)