Muscat – Oman’s Ras Markaz oil storage facility, which is located in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm (SEZAD), is likely to be commissioned by the end of this year, according to the CEO of operator Oman Tank Terminal Company (OTTCO).

The Ras Markaz facility will have an initial capacity to store 5.2mn barrels of crude for the Duqm Refinery project (OQ8), OTTCO CEO Ard Van Hoof told S&P Global Commodity Insights in a recent interview.

“We are going to commission Ras Markaz crude facility by the end of this year but the operation itself is dependent or subject to the OQ8 refinery start-up,” Van Hoof said. “The crude source will be decided by the refinery.”

The Ras Markaz oil storage terminal is set to receive the first cargo for the Duqm Refinery in November amid talks with customers to store their crude in the project, Van Hoof said, as reported by S&P Global.

The Duqm Refinery project is a joint venture between Oman’s OQ Group and Kuwait Petroleum International.

Van Hoof noted that Ras Markaz has sufficient land and will provide blending services to develop itself into a true regional crude oil hub.

“We can increase the number of SPMs in the water as per the requirement from the market in that sense the location of Ras Markaz provides numerous upsides to develop a crude facility in Oman next to Fujairah,” he told S&P Global.

In December 2021, Aramco Trading Company, a unit of Saudi Aramco, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with OQ to potentially store crude at Ras Markaz and supply feedstock to Duqm Refinery. Aramco Trading Company already has an office in Fujairah to handle gasoline and fuel oil storage and blending activities, according to S&P Global report.

“The MoU between OQ and Aramco Trading Company expressed the intent to jointly assess several opportunities, which include obviously storage of crude oil in in Ras Markaz,” said Van Hoof. “As the refinery, it is designed to receive and handle different types of crude grades. It depends on the crude slate the refinery wants to use and that could be Saudi crude.”

OTTCO, as per S&P Global report, plans to have some 26mn of oil storage capacity at Ras Markaz in its first phase, but has its eyes on eventually storing some 200mn barrels.

“OTTCO is currently in talks with potential regional and international companies to store their crude at Ras Markaz,” Van Hoof said.

“We are currently negotiating and discussing with different third parties who are interested in having a crude oil position in Ras Markaz. We hope to be able to announce during the first half of next year a final investment decision to develop and construct additional tank capacity,” he added.

Oman’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals recently signed a framework agreement with OTTCO to develop a new oil pipeline for the export of Oman blend crude from Ras Markaz crude oil terminal in Duqm.

The agreement between Ministry of Energy and Minerals and OTTCO has been signed for their joint cooperation to develop, build and operate the new oil pipeline, the ministry said in a press statement.

The pipeline will be connected with OTTCO infrastructure to transfer, store and export Oman blend crude from the Ras Markaz crude oil terminal.