Omabn Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) is expected to receive bids from a number of international firms for a contract to provide project management consultancy (PMC) services for a new petroleum coke (petcoke) facility, a report said.

The major petcoke handling and storage facility will come up at Orpic’s Sohar Refinery complex, said the Oman Daily Observer report.

Orpic plans to invest in an elaborate system of facilities for handling, storage, transport, and discharge of the sizable volumes of petcoke that will be produced as a by-product of refining operations following the completion of its multibillion-dollar Sohar Refinery Improvement Project (SRIP), said the report.

Orpic recently launched a competitive tender for the appointment of a qualified project management consultant to oversee the implementation of the petcoke handling and storage venture.

The tender is to select a reputed consultant to deliver PMC services for the engineering, procurement, construction, testing, pre-commissioning, commissioning and handing over (EPC) of the facility project to be carried by the EPC contractor.

Fuel grade petcoke is typically used as feedstock in cement kilns and electricity plants, while the calcined variety of pet coke, which has high carbon purity, is used in the manufacture of aluminium, graphite electrode, steel, titanium dioxide and other carbon consuming industries.

Plans approved by Orpic envisage a system of silos complete with belt feeders and conveyors for the storage of pet coke once the ongoing revamp and modernisation is completed during 2017. 

A key feature of the project is a pair of reinforced concrete silos with capacity to handle 60,000 tonnes of pet coke. Volumes destined for export will be fed from the silos into specially designed containers with openable bottom mechanisms, added the report.