During its service to the Oman oil and gas industry for over five decades, The Oman Construction Company (TOCO) has established itself as the foremost pipeline contractor in Oman. Since 1965, the company has been a ‘Trusted Partner ‘of major national and international oil and gas asset owners and operators across the Sultanate and the rest of the GCC. During this time TOCO as developed an un-paralleled level of expertise in pipeline and construction services. TOCO is part of Oman’s oil and gas legacy with several ‘Firsts’ to its credit. The list includes construction of the first pipeline, flow line, production station, tank farm, overhead power line. In 1967, TOCO moved the first rig at Fahud.
THE PIPELINE EXPERTS
When it comes to pipelines, TOCO is undoubtedly the oldest, well resourced, highly experienced and one of the most respected contractors in Oman. Over the years TOCO has constructed several thousand kilometers of oil and gas pipelines in the Sultanate having built close to 4,000 kilometres of pipelines in last two decades itself.
THE PROJECT
The Muscat Sohar Pipeline Project (MSPP) will connect ORPIC’s Mina Al Fahal and Sohar refineries by means of a 280 km pipeline to an intermediate distribution and storage facility at Jifnain, as well as a new storage facility at Muscat International Airport, which will receive aviation fuel directly from the pipeline.
MSPP will be a two-way multi-product pipeline, the first of its kind to be constructed in Oman. It will remove the need for ORPIC to ship and truck refined products. Not only will it bring a new level of efficiency and lower costs to its business, it will reduce the number of fuel-tank truck journeys in and around Muscat. Heavy fuel-tank truck traffic in Muscat is expected to drop by 70%. MSPP will help to ensure the safe, continuous and environmentally friendly supply of a range of fuels to meet rapidly growing local demand.
In February 2015, TOCO was awarded the “Construction and Installation of buried Pipeline from Sohar to Seeb terminal” by Gulf Petrochemical Services & Trading LLC(GPS) who were the main contractor to the ultimate client ORPIC Logistics Company (OLC).
MAIN SCOPE OF WORK ELEMENTS:
- 18” CS buried Pipeline 227 KMs
- Pig Launcher & Receiver Stations
- 9 Numbers of Block Valve Stations
- Cathodic Protection System
KEY ACTIVITIES:
- Project Management and Administration
- Establishing fast track mobilization of all resources, camp construction, access roads, pipe yard and the likes in support of the construction phase
- Obtaining necessary permits required for the execution of the work
- Procurement of material bulks and consumables
- Off-site piping and manifold fabrication
- Pipeline and Above Ground Installations (AGI) construction covering all activities from Right of Way (ROW) preparation, automatic welding of the main line, trenching, field joint coating, hydro testing, and flange leak testing
- Road and Wadi crossing
- Civil & Mechanical works for constructing 11 AGI’s (Pig Launcher, Block Valve Stations and Receiver stations)
- Pipeline and AGIs Testing and Pre-commissioning up to Mechanical Completion
- Handover and Commissioning support
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
The project was completed to the Client’s full satisfaction. It took over 2,224,893 manhours over two years to construct this pipeline. TOCO delivered exceptional welding performance in this project with 99.5 % weld joint acceptance. It is to be taken into consideration that over 13,500 joints were manually welded and just 68 required repair.
THE CHALLENGE:
The Sohar to Muscat pipeline part was the critical part of the project as it feeds the tank terminal located at Jifnain. This fator put a spotlight on TOCO through the entire duration of the project:
- The pipeline route was challenging as it passed through urbanized areas, highways, roads and wadis
- The pipeline crossed 68 nos of major tarmac roads & express highways
- 105 no. of Wadi crossing including the al-Khoud Wadi
- Obtaining the NOC and permits for construction from other operators, ministries, municipal bodies, airport, Sohar Industrial City and port authorities
- The pipeline was constructed next to existing operating oil & gas pipelines and hence requiring additional permits and safety measures
INGENUITY AT WORK
Our wealth of knowledge empowers us to think differently and proactively, also act according to the situations and bring innovation to work. We believe being inquisitive, putting our clients at the heart of what we do, asking the right questions to arrive at the best solutions.
Few notable initiatives from this project are listed below:
- Designed and fabricated a mechanical devise for post-padding grading which helped to remove manual work resulting safer and faster output
- Designed and developed buoyancy control bags locally as an Omani product
- Adoption of direct pulling of product pipe instead of open cut crossing
- Supported a local company to manufacture concrete coating for pipes
- Implementation of cost effective alternative for of pipeline preservation
