Package one of the Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) Liwa Steam Cracker & Polyethylene Plant Project is due to be competed before the end of 2020, according to industry sources.

The package is worth $2.8bn and was awarded to a joint venture of Netherlands-based CB&I and Taiwan's CTCI in November 2015.

“This project is under construction now and will be completed by the end of 2019,” said one source.

The scope of the package includes a steam cracker, off-site works and utilities.

It is one of four engineering, procurement and contracting (EPC) packages:

• Steamcracker and utilities: CB&I (Netherlands-based) and CTCI Corporation (Taiwan) joint venture
• Plastics units: Technimont (Italy)
• Natural gas liquids (NGL) extraction: GS Engineering & Construction (South Korea) and Mitsui (Japan) joint venture
• NGL pipeline: Punj Lloyd (India)

Together the four contracts were worth a total of $4.5bn.

The project was originally expected to be competed in 2018, but it has seen some delays.

It is also known as integrated Liwa plastics project and will be integrated with the existing Sohar refinery to produce polyethylene, polypropylene, and benzene.

The Liwa Plastics project is expected to expand fuel and plastics production capacity in Oman.

The steam cracker will be fed by a combination of natural gas liquids, refined dry gas, mixed liquid petroleum gas and condensate.

Any ethane and propane produced during the cracking process will be recycled back into the furnace.

When fully operational, it is expected to operate for 8,000 hours a-year with about 700 hours devoted to maintenance.