Incident Report

Subject:         OMAN - Muscat Refinery Fire Repair to Cost Millions

Date of Email report:  Thu 11/12/2014 15:17

Report Detail:

Repairing the refinery in Minal Al Fahal that caught fire is top priority for the government, said a Ministry of Oil official, even as an expert from the industry predicted that it could cost millions of dollars to fix.   "The fire that destroyed part of the Muscat Refinery will cost the government millions of dollars to bring it back to full operation," said an industry expert.   Hundreds of workers were evacuated when the refinery in Minal Al Fahal caught fire and injured four persons.    A statement posted on the Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) website said, "The incident was due to a fire in one of its naphtha treatment units."

Blast and smoke

Witnesses said they heard a blast shortly before smoke erupted from the plant. The refinery is located in the midst of residential and business areas at Qurm, but Orpic said there was no indication of any release of toxic substances that would pose a threat to the surrounding areas.  The refinery is managed by Orpic. The state-run company also has another refinery in Sohar that pumps around 120,000 barrels per day of refined oil. "The way it was described to me by refinery engineers, it will take tens of millions of dollars to repair the refinery. The naphtha treatment facilities are not cheap to replace and neither are the processing plants.
Also you need to consider the time the refinery will be out of service and the income loss when it is down," Aki Atsushi, a consultant of South Korea's SK Engineering and Construction Company, the company that helped built the Sohar Refinery, told Times of Oman.  A Ministry of Oil official said, "We know what we have to do and repairs are a top priority. It is part of the refinery business operations to put things right and we are on the job."  Orpic said in the statement that there would be no disruption of refined oil supply. The Muscat Refinery officials were not available for comment on the current status of the refinery, but officials said investigations were under way to find out the exact cause of the fire. The damage to the refinery comes at a time when the government is cutting costs in preparation for the 2015 budget, which is expected to be unveiled shortly.

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