Integrated refining and petrochemicals company attributes results to higher utilisation rates.

According to preliminary financial results for 2011, Orpic, Oman's integrated refining and petrochemicals business, has announced operating profits of 150 million Omani rials (US$390 million).

Mohammed bin Hamad al-Rumhi, minister of oil and gas and chairman of Orpic, says the results reflect "the high actual utilisation rate of the Sohar refinery, as well as the aromatics and polypropylene plants".

"The company was able to overcome the technical difficulties of the Sohar refinery and the refinery utilisation rate reached 93%, compared with a historical annual rate not exceeding 75%. The utilisation rate of the aromatics plant in 2011 reached 93% of its capacity, compared with 65% in 2010," he says.

As regards Orpic's fulfilment of local market needs of motor fuel, diesel, cooking gas and jet fuel, Al-Rumhi says the company performance in 2011 has reduced the sultanate's reliance on importing motor fuel and diesel. The imports decreased from 5mbbl in 2010 to 1mbbl in the first half of 2011 and no imports in the second half of the year.

The government's merger programme of refineries and petrochemical companies, which began in 2010, is aimed at building a leading Omani company in the sector, adding value to the resources of the crude oil industry and other derivatives in the sultanate, and meeting local market demands for fuel to keep up with the growth of the economy at a local level.

"The new company management had replaced the previous three companies to manage and operate the refineries, as well as the aromatics and polypropylene plants," Al-Rumhi says.

"The operation of these refineries and petrochemical companies is linked as they depend on each other to provide raw materials and operational processes."

Commenting on whether Orpic gets crude oil at a lower than market price, Al-Rumhi says the company works on a commercial basis, therefore it does not get the raw materials at a lower price than the market. He says Orpic buys its crude oil at the published price and in turn it sells the fuel and other products at the market price.

Al-Rumhi says the company began the front-end engineering design (FEED) for the Sohar refinery expansion project in 2011. This project is expected to increase the refinery production by 70%, enabling it to meet the increasing demand for motor fuel and diesel in the local market.

Orpic has 1,600 employees working in its Mina Al Fahal refinery and Sohar refinery, in addition to the aromatics plant and the polypropylene plant. The Mina Al Fahal refinery began operations in 1982, while the Sohar refinery and the polypropylene plant launched operations in 2006. The most recent industrial addition in Sohar was the aromatics petrochemicals plant, which began operations in 2010.

The production capacity of the group stands at 222,000bpd of naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas, gas oil, gasoline, fuel oil and jet fuel. In addition, it produces 818,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of paraxylene, 198,000tpa of gasoline and 350,000tpa of polypropylene.