Oman-based investment company, Takamul has revealed interest in building two petrochemical plants in Sohar and Salalah following the completion of front-end engineering and design studies for both projects expected before 2015.
The Sohar project is intended to produce metaxylene/purified isophthalic acid (PIA) plant, metaxylene is a feedstock for the production of PIA, a feedstock for polyester. “The PIA industry is tightly owned with very few suppliers around the world,” Gilles Desorbay, general manager of commercial and business development at Takamul recently told the Muscat Daily. “We would like to see Oman becoming one of those key suppliers for the global polyesters industry,” he added.
Oman’s Orpic refinery will lend it a competitive advantage in setting up such a plant because of the availability of locally produced feedstock. The market for polyesters is growing dramatically, particularly in the GCC region and the Indian subcontinent.
