(EnergyAsia, August 22 2011, Monday) — Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries (Orpic) has selected a mix of Honeywell’s UOP and Foster Wheeler technology to help process heavy oil and expand fuel and petrochemicals production at its new refinery in Sohar city in Oman.

UOP said Orpic will use the UOP-Foster Wheeler Solvent Deasphalting (SDA) process technology to convert heavy crude to low-contaminant deasphalted oil, a product that is further processed in refineries to produce liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline, jet fuel, diesel and propylene. The new unit will process 2.5 million metric tonnes per year of heavy crude to significantly increase the refinery’s production of valuable petroleum products.

UOP and Foster Wheeler will provide the technology licence and basic engineering package for the new unit, which is expected to start up in 2015.

The SDA process separates heavy vacuum residue by density and molecular weight instead of the more traditional boiling point method. The process produces a high-quality, low-contaminant deasphalted oil that is rich in paraffinic-type molecules used in fuels and petrochemicals production.

To date, the two companies have designed and licensed over 70 SDA units, ranging in size from 7,000 to 48,000 b/d.

Keith Aspray, general manager for Honeywell’s UOP Middle East Company, said:“This project with allow Orpic to significantly increase its yields of transportation fuels from heavy, difficult-to-upgrade feedstocks. Together with Foster Wheeler, we have significant experience with this solution and we are confident that it will help Orpic to achieve its goals.”

Umberto della Sala, chief executive officer, Foster Wheeler AG, said:

“We are very pleased that Orpic has selected UOP/Foster Wheeler technology for this strategically important refinery project in the Middle East. This latest award constitutes a strong vote of confidence in the added value we deliver in heavy oil processing and continues our successful record in licensing large SDA units.”

State-owned Orpic owns and operates four plants in Sohar and Muscat that have a combined capacity to produce 222,000 b/d of naphtha, LPG, gas oil, gasoline, fuel oil and jet oil, as well as 818,000 metric tonnes of paraxylene, 198,000 metric tonnes of benzene and 350,000 metric tonnes of polypropylene per year.

UOP LLC, headquartered in Des Plaines, Illinois, USA, is a leading international supplier and licensor of process technology, catalysts, adsorbents, process plants, and consulting services to the petroleum refining, petrochemical, and gas processing industries. UOP is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc.