OMAN: Korea EximBank providing funding for Orpic's NGL extraction facility

Korea EximBank will provide USD 370-million in financing for a natural gas liquids (NGL) extraction unit being built as part of Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Co.'s (Orpic) Liwa Plastics Industries Complex in Sohar, Oman, according to Business Korea online newspaper.

Being built by a consortium of GS Engineering & Construction and Mitsui & Co., the NGL unit will have a capacity of 670-million standard cu ft/day. Completion is expected in about 42 months.

The USd 5.2-billion Liwa project, due to be commissioned in 2019, includes a steam cracker with over 800,000 t/y of capacity, 838,000 t/y of linear low- and high-density polyethylene capacity, 215,000 t/y of polypropylene capacity and a 300-km NGL pipeline between Fahud and Sohar.

"As low oil prices have continued, many large projects have been cancelled all over the world and Korean companies have been facing difficulties to win orders," said the report quoting an EximBank official. GS was able to win the order for the NGL unit "after the bank led the financial negotiation."

Source: Weekly “PetroChemical News”, Durham, NC, USA; 8 Feb 2016
(Syed Rashid Ali, Karachi, Pakistan)