The facility, according to a senior executive, will cater to around half of the Sultanate’s gasoline and diesel demand, with the balance met by existing depots in Sohar, Mina Al Fahal and Raysut (Salalah).

Speaking at the Oman Refining & Petrochemical Exhibition & Conference (ORPEC), Andres Suarez, General Manager — Logistics (ORPIC), said the Al Jifnain Terminal forms the centrepiece of a strategically important initiative to build the logistics infrastructure necessary to secure the supply of oil products covering the entire country.

Implementation of the project is being overseen by ORPIC Logistics Company, a partnership of ORPIC and Spanish fuel transportation and storage giant CLH. Total investment in the fuel storage terminal and associated multiproduct fuel pipeline project is estimated at $320 million.

According to Suarez, around $80 million of this amount has been earmarked for the development of the national fuel storage terminal at Al Jifnain. The facility, located around 20 km from Muscat International Airport, will be built along the route of the existing crude oil pipeline that connects ORPIC’s Mina Al Fahal (Muscat) and Sohar refineries.

From its vantage point, the Al Jifnain Terminal will serve the capital region as well the centre of Oman, said Suarez. Supplies to the North and South Batinah governorates will be covered by Sohar Refinery, while the existing Mina Al Fahal Terminal in Muscat will cover areas unserved by the new terminal at Al Jifnain.

Coverage of the south of the country will be met through ORPIC’s depot at Raysut in Salalah, he stated. The terminal itself will be a world-class facility, the General Manager said. At the heart of the facility is a cluster of 12 tanks offering a total of 171,000 cubic metres of capacity for the storage of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. A system of 18 loading bays will allow for fuel trucks, operating by fuel marketing companies, to be loaded in quick succession. Feeding the Al Jifnain Terminal will be a network of pipelines — totaling 290 kilometres in length — that will carry oil products from the Sohar and Mina Al Fahal refineries. Unique in concept, these multiproduct pipelines will be designed to transport different oil products — one after the other — through the same pipeline without any risk of contamination. Flows can also be reversed if the need arises, Suarez said.

Another pipeline will connect the terminal to Muscat International Airport supplying jet fuel that, without the benefit of a pipeline, would require as many as 80 tanker trucks daily to keep the airport well stocked up on fuel, said Suarez.

Last December, local Omani engineering firm Gulf Petrochemical Services (GPS) was awarded the engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) to construct the multiproduct pipeline network and storage terminal. GPS is supported by Abantia, a Spanish Construction company, which is experienced in terminal construction, and Diseprosa an engineering company based in Spain. When it is fully operational, the new storage terminal will contribute to the reduction of tanker traffic on Muscat’s roads — from the current 500 trips from Mina Al Fahal daily — to around 130 daily by the year 2020. All of the logistics assets — multiproduct pipeline network and storage terminal – are due to be in place by mid-2017, Suarez added.