Oman Methanol Company LLC

Oman Methanol Company LLC (OMC) is implementing a project for a plant to produce 3000 MTPD of methanol at their site in Sohar. Financial Close was achieved on 21 April 2005 and the scheduled production start is in Second Half of 2007 . The Shareholding Companies have already announced their intention to build a second unit of the same capacity on the site.

Work is well advanced for the engineering, design and procurement for this plant and the construction has been underway since March 2005.

The OMC plant will be the largest single-stream plant of its type in the world. The M5000 plant in Trinidad uses the same technology but has two back-end trains.

Apart of becoming increasingly important as very flexible energy source and as co-component for bio-diesel, methanol is a key chemical intermediate for many industrial products, for example polyesters, acrylics, formaldehyde resins, MTBE. As it is a liquid under ambient conditions, it is relatively easy to store and transport. For this reason, methanol is generally produced close to the natural gas locations and shipped to the downstream units located closer to those markets. While most of the initial production will be exported, OMC is keen to see the development of downstream consumers based in Oman .

The Company envisages that a high proportion of the operators will be Omanis, initially managed by expatriates who have experience in the safe operation of world scale plants. Full training will be provided for all operating personnel, well in advance of the plant start-up.

Oman Methanol Company LLC is a joint venture between Methanol Holding International Limited (MHIL) of Trinidad, Oman Methanol Holding Company LLC (OMC), which is a division of Omar Zawawi Establishment (Omzest) Group & MAN Ferrostaal Methanol Holding Limited.

Finance for the project has been provided by the German bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW). The engineering and procurement of the projects will be undertaken by MAN Ferrostaal AG, with Oman Proman Contracting and Trading LLC managing the construction and commissioning work.