Oman-based OQ Group, a global integrated energy company, has launched its new liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant in the Governorate of Dhofar. HH Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham Al Said, Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, presided over the commissioning ceremony.
Built with an investment of RO 318 million, OQ’s LPG plant embodies the government’s strategy to drive economic diversification, optimize value creation from the country’s natural resources, promote in-country value (ICV) development, and implement the Oman 2040 Vision to diversify revenue generation streams.
HH Sayyid Theyazin was given an overview of the various key components of the plant, which have been designed and built in accordance with the highest technical and safety standards. It includes an extraction facility, fractionation unit, storage tanks, shipping facilities, and a pipeline system that connects the plant with the extraction unit at the upstream end of the project, with the storage components and the export facilities located at the Port of Salalah.
The presentation to HH Sayyid Theyazin also covered the commercial operations of the plant, which has already commenced the production of LPG per international standards and specifications. The plant exported its first LPG shipment in July 2021.
OQ LPG has a capacity to process around 8.8 million standard cubic meters per day of lean gas to produce about 304 kilotons per year of LPG comprising 155 kilotons per year of propane (C3), 111 kilotons of butane (C4) and 38 kilotons of condensates (C5+).
OQ’s LPG plant will also meet the energy requirements of industrial and retail consumers in Dhofar Governorates. Surplus output will be exported to world markets through OQ Trading, the marketing arm of the Group. Furthermore, the Group is studying the feasibility of using LPG products to develop petrochemical industries to help optimize value creation from hydrocarbons and support downstream investment.
The plant processes natural gas liquids (NGLs) extracted from gas networks into LPG. In 2017 Petrofac was awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the project – its first in the region of Salalah. The scope of work included construction of the LPG unit and associated facilities, including tie-ins to existing pipeline infrastructure, together with LPG storage and jetty facilities at the Port of Salalah.
