US speciality chemicals and metals producer Grace & Company has won a OR31m ($82m) order to supply a new catalyst to Oman Refining & Petrochemical Company (ORPC) for use in its Sohar refinery.

Grace submitted the lowest bid for the deal in August last year and was formally awarded the supply contract at the end of the year. The company will supply a catalyst and related chemical additives for the key residual fluid catalytic cracking unit at the company’s Sohar refinery.

The deal was not related to a new refinery project, the business development manager of one firm that bid on the deal tells MEED, but was rather part of the standard process of replacing catalysts over time.

The Sohar refinery is made up of a crude distillation unit, which separates 116,000 barrels a day of crude (b/d) oil into a series of product streams based on the viscosity of the liquid involved. Some of these streams, around 75,260 b/d worth, are then chemically ‘cracked’ into smaller and more saleable components.

The nearest bid to Grace’s was an OR33m offer from Germany’s BASF Refining Catalysts. The US’ Albermarle Catalysts Company submitted a bid of OR25m but was not selected for the deal for undisclosed reasons.