Oman’s Tawfiq Coke Products, a JV of local firm Salmeem Industrial Projects and the UK’s BSW Group, has awarded India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) a $430mn contract to build a coke calciner in the Sohar Industrial Estate. L&T says contract scope includes technology licensing, front end engineering design and engineering, procurement and construction. The plant will have capacity to produce 450,000 t/y of calcined petroleum coke from 2022. Petcoke is typically used to produce anodes for aluminum smelting. Feedstock for the coker will be residual fuel oil, which is available at the nearby 197,000 b/d Sohar refinery.
Oil minister Muhammad al-Rumhy inaugurated the Sohar Refinery Improvement Project (SRIP) on 1 April, although it first began to ramp up operations in early 2018 (MEES, 23 February 2018). State refiner Orpic undertook the $2.7bn SRIP to add 81,000 b/d of crude distillation capacity to the refinery’s original 116,000 b/d, while maximizing output of transport fuels. (CONTINUED - 153 WORDS)