SMC-LLC
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Salalah Methanol Company L.L.C. (SMC) owns and operates a newly established meth anol production facility in the Salalah Free Zone located near the Port of Salal ah. The company was founded in February 2006 and is wholly owned by Oman Oil Company S.A.O.C. (OOC). In turn, OOC is a commercial company wholly owned by the Government of the Sulta nate of Oman, which was incorporated specifically to pursue investment opportuni ties in the energy sector both inside and outside Oman. As such, OOC plays an im portant role in helping diversify the Omani economy and to promote Omani and for eign private sector investment. At a total cost of $900 million, the facility s commercial production started in M ay 2010. By February 2013, less than three years after start-up, SMC had achieve d three million tonnes of methanol production. This is a world-class performance for a new plant. In 2012 alone SMC produced around 1.1 million tonnes at more t han 100 per cent of capacity utilisation. On average the facility has the ability to produce 3000 tonnes a day of methanol . Alongside the plant itself, the site consists of related utilities, off-sites, and export facilities. We are what is known as a black start plant in that we ha ve captive power generation on-site, explains Awadh Al-Shanfari, CEO of SMC. We al so maintain water desalination, boiler feedwater preparation, auxiliary steam ge neration, condensate/water treatment facilities, instrument air/plant air and ni trogen generators, and effluent and sewage treatment plants. The methanol is produced from natural gas supplied to the facility through a 24inch pipeline provided by the Ministry of Oil and Gas through the Oman Gas Compa ny. The final product is exported from the Salalah Port Company facilities, whic h are in the immediate vicinity of the site. ICI technology is used for carrying out the production provided through Jacobs C onsultancy by way of a basic engineering and FEED package for the facility. John son Matthey provides the initial charge of catalysts. As to the choice of product, Awadh explains: Methanol is the pound. It is a commodity chemical, and can be used to produce ducts. In particular methanol is a basic building block for tics, paints, and man-made fibres. It is also used to make an fuel additive. This is why we chose methanol, as it s a very simplest alcohol com many different pro the production of plas important gasoline versatile product.
Since its launch, SMC has continued to impress with its performance. A Methanol Plant Benchmarking Study carried out by Johnson Matthey/ABB for 17 plants places SMC in the top five globally. It has also been recognised as the best company a mongst Oman Oil Subsidiaries based on performance. This isn t only in terms of production volume. SMC has achieved more than two mill ion manhours without a lost time incident (LTI) as of March 2013 in the operatin g phase, and a peak of around 16 million man-hours without an LTI during constru ction phase. Health and safety for all employees and contractors at the plantsit e is the highest priority for SMC. Various ongoing and future improvement progra mmes including Operational Excellence, Corporate Risk Management, Enterprise Per formance Management Systems (EPMS) and Integrated Management Systems are being i mplemented to improve processes and enhance this performance even further. From an environmental perspective, even at the early design stage, SMC invested heavily in measures to minimise the impact of its activities. This includes proc esses like using all treated effluent water in the 37,000 square metre green bel t area within the complex, and a fully equipped onsite laboratory for the comple
tion of regular environmental checks. Our greatest strength though is our people, highlights Awadh. Since we started the plant we have had to train our own people in methanol production, and this is fr om two sides technical skills and soft skills. This has included things like saf ety, management, HR, leadership management, and negotiation skills. Our strategy from day one has been to invest in people and we are very proud of what we have been able to achieve together. These initial years certainly seem to have put SMC well on the way to achieving its vision of being globally recognised as the Omani flagship model of excellenc e in the hydrocarbon industry, with sustainable growth and best returns for all stakeholders. Maintaining this momentum, this year SMC is continuing to look at ways of developing the performance of the plant by beginning with de-bottlenecki ng, which should leverage benefits in energy optimisation and increased producti on. Beyond that SMC has expansion plans, and is looking into the feasibility of down stream products. Casting an eye back at how far SMC has come since its formation Awadh describes the company s pride in its achievements: It was a challenge for us to build the plant, but we achieved it within time and budget. We achieved one of the fastest start-ups of any methanol plant, reaching 100 per cent on specifi cation methanol production within twelve days - from first introduction of feeds tock natural. We are very proud of our performance so far in all areas and will continue to build upon this, he concludes. Salalah Methanol Company L.L.C. Services: Methanol production facility
Since its launch, SMC has continued to impress with its performance. A Methanol Plant Benchmarking Study carried out by Johnson Matthey/ABB for 17 plants places SMC in the top five globally. It has also been recognised as the best company a mongst Oman Oil Subsidiaries based on performance. This isn t only in terms of production volume. SMC has achieved more than two mill ion manhours without a lost time incident (LTI) as of March 2013 in the operatin g phase, and a peak of around 16 million man-hours without an LTI during constru ction phase. Health and safety for all employees and contractors at the plantsit e is the highest priority for SMC. Various ongoing and future improvement progra mmes including Operational Excellence, Corporate Risk Management, Enterprise Per formance Management Systems (EPMS) and Integrated Management Systems are being i mplemented to improve processes and enhance this performance even further. From an environmental perspective, even at the early design stage, SMC invested heavily in measures to minimise the impact of its activities. This includes proc esses like using all treated effluent water in the 37,000 square metre green bel t area within the complex, and a fully equipped onsite laboratory for the comple
tion of regular environmental checks. Our greatest strength though is our people, highlights Awadh. Since we started the plant we have had to train our own people in methanol production, and this is fr om two sides technical skills and soft skills. This has included things like saf ety, management, HR, leadership management, and negotiation skills. Our strategy from day one has been to invest in people and we are very proud of what we have been able to achieve together. These initial years certainly seem to have put SMC well on the way to achieving its vision of being globally recognised as the Omani flagship model of excellenc e in the hydrocarbon industry, with sustainable growth and best returns for all stakeholders. Maintaining this momentum, this year SMC is continuing to look at ways of developing the performance of the plant by beginning with de-bottlenecki ng, which should leverage benefits in energy optimisation and increased producti on. Beyond that SMC has expansion plans, and is looking into the feasibility of down stream products. Casting an eye back at how far SMC has come since its formation Awadh describes the company s pride in its achievements: It was a challenge for us to build the plant, but we achieved it within time and budget. We achieved one of the fastest start-ups of any methanol plant, reaching 100 per cent on specifi cation methanol production within twelve days - from first introduction of feeds tock natural. We are very proud of our performance so far in all areas and will continue to build upon this, he concludes. Salalah Methanol Company L.L.C. Services: Methanol production facility
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