State -owned Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) has awarded 15 agreements, including four major engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, for its $6.4-billion plastic manufacturing complex in the Sohar area of the sultanate, said a report.

The EPC contracts for the Liwa Plastics Industries Complex are for building a polymers plant in the Sohar industrial area, a natural gas liquids (NGL) extraction plant in Fahud, a steam cracker plant and a 300-km-long pipeline from Fahud to Sohar, reported the Times of Oman.

The project commissioning is expected in 2019, stated the report.

The first EPC contract for building a steam cracker and utilities was clinched by CB&I and the CTCI Corporation joint venture, while the second one, for building a plastic unit, was won by Tecnimont. The third project for the NGL extraction unit went to the joint venture of GS Engineering and Construction and Mitsui and the fourth EPC contract for the NGL pipeline was won by Punj Lloyd, said the report.

The formal agreements were signed by Orpic chairman Sultan bin Salim Al Habsi and CEO Musab Al Mahruqi along with the top officials of the contract-winning companies.

Moreover, more than 20 local and international banks, financial institutions and export credit agencies have committed to providing $3.8 billion, it stated.

Once the plant commissioning gets completed in 2019, the Liwa plastic complex will change Orpic’s product mix by extracting more value from natural gas and crude oil, Al Mahruqi was quoted as saying.

Located in Sohar as part of an integrated complex that also houses the refinery, aromatics plant, polypropylene and steam cracker unit for the Liwa complex, Orpic will have one of the most integrated refinery and petrochemical operations in the world and will enable the company to extract the maximum value from Oman’s oil and gas, he added.