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Muscat-Sohar oil pipeline operations to start by mid-2017

MUSCAT, May 18, 2016

The 290-km-long pipeline for transporting refined petroleum products between Muscat and Sohar is expected to begin operations by mid-2017, a report said.

“The Muscat Sohar Product Pipeline (MSPP) is expected to be fully operational by mid-2017. Even though initially the project was conceived in several phases, it was finally decided to fully implement the project. This means that the whole pipeline network, as well as the Al Jifnain Terminal, will be ready simultaneously,” Andres Suarez, general manager of Orpic Logistics, was quoted as saying in the Times of Oman report.

The pipeline will significantly reduce the number of tanker trucks transporting fuel between the Sohar and Mina Al Fahal Refineries, he added.

The reduction in tanker movements will save $20 million per year in logistics, the report said.

“The new logistics system has been designed with the objective of optimising global costs of transport and distribution of oil products in Oman, including vessels, tankers and power used in the pipelines, irrespective of who bears these costs,” said Suarez.

“In this sense, the location of the new storage and distribution terminal in Al Jifnain will optimise the oil products transportation by trucks and this will mean a reduction of approximately 24 per cent of the associated costs, and therefore of the tanker movements.”

The MSPP and Al Jifnain Terminal project will also enable the connection of Orpic’s Mina Al Fahal Refinery in Muscat and the Sohar Refinery with a new storage and distribution terminal located in Jifnain via a bi-directional pipeline network, the report said.

Suarez said MSPP and the Al Jifnain Terminal Project will constitute state-of-the-art control systems. “It will also be equipped with loading facilities designed to cater to loading more than 500 trucks per day. This new facility will make a significant change in the way the oil products are delivered to Orpic’s customers,” he said.

“The loading process will be fully automated thereby significantly reducing the waiting time for trucks drivers at the terminal and increasing the reliability of operations, as well as the security process for drivers and Orpic employees based in Al Jifnain,” added Suarez.




Tags: petroleum |

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