Hydrocarbon Engineering

March

2017

117

HYDROCARBON

ENGINEERING

ealth and safety is an integral part of the oil

industry’s day-to-day operations, with very few

sectors falling into a more high risk working

environment category. The oil and gas industry is

known to have high health, safety and environment (HSE)

standards; these govern every activity and ensure that any

risk is controlled. That being said, history shows that

accidents do still happen, and when they do they can have

significant consequences. These are known as ‘low

probability, high consequence incidents’. Essentially, the oil

and gas industry cannot afford for accidents to occur.

With this in mind, the following article will examine

how Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries

Company (ORPIC), one of Oman’s largest and most rapidly

growing oil businesses, managed the health and safety

aspects of its recent shutdown.

ORPIC has an integrated complex that includes four

industrial plants, operating at two locations in Muscat and

Sohar. The two locations are joined by a 266 km pipeline,

delivering feedstock from the Mina Al Fahal refinery to the

Sohar plants. Together, the two refineries have a

production capacity of 222 000 bpd of crude oil. This

crude oil is turned into naphtha, liquid petroleum gas (LPG),

diesel, gasoline, fuel oil and jet fuel. In addition, ORPIC’s

aromatics plant has a production capacity of 818 000 tpy

of paraxylene and 198 000 tpy of benzene. Finally, the

polypropylene plant can produce up to 350 000 t of

polypropylene pellets.

Case study: turnaround project

ORPIC conducts a large scale maintenance project at its

Sohar refinery on a biannual basis, which is necessary to

ensure the safety of the whole operation, as well as the

integrity of the plant. It identifies corroded pipes, vessels

and instruments that need to be changed in order to meet

the high standards set by ORPIC, and help make the plant

more efficient and effective. It also involves replacing

equipment that would need a process shutdown to

complete and includes very heavy lifts and high risk

maintenance activities.

The sheer scale of operations at ORPIC means that it is

crucial to have each of its workers trained in the relevant

health and safety skills necessary to perform their role. For

this, ORPIC turned, once again, to RRC Middle East, part of

RRC Training, a health, safety and environmental training

provider and consultancy, to manage the safety of the

turnaround at its Sohar refinery. With offices in Bahrain and

Dubai, RRC has provided consultancy and training to over

100 organisations in the region, including Saudi Electric,

Saudi Aramco, Sohar Aluminium, ADNEC, Saudi National

Grid Company, Bahrain Fuel Company, Bahrain Petroleum

Company, Aluminium Bahrain, SABIC, Federal Electricity

and Water Authority, NOMAC Oman and Oman Indian

Fertiliser Company. The company runs an operation

consisting of local trainers and consultants that understand

the local market, companies and culture, and speak a

number of different languages, including Arabic, English,

HELPING

HAND