Oman downstream operator Orpic will start commercial operations at its Al-Jifnain storage terminal by the end of the year, according to a senior official.

"Jet fuel will start flowing to the airport by end of the month. All the facilities are ready. The pipeline to the airport may get delayed, but definitely this year," Said al-Mahrouqi, planning and optimisation manager at Orpic told reporters on the sidelines of the 8th Argus Middle East Oil Products Conference in Dubai.

"The storage tank has been built and commissioned, while the pipelines were commissioned a few weeks ago," he said.

The Al-Jifnain terminal is part of Orpic's $320m project to build pipelines to transfer products between its refineries at Sohar and Mina al-Fahal in Muscat. The terminal will act as an intermediate distribution and storage facility. Orpic also planned for a storage facility to store jet fuel at the Muscat International airport.

The 290-kilometre two-way product pipeline was designed to reduce maritime traffic as well as cut down on shipping costs.

"We had to ship the materials from Sohar to Muscat to Raysut in the south of Oman and this [project] will reduce the cost of that. We have started and commissioned the terminal and 10 days ago, we loaded the first fleet of trucks from that terminal," said Al-Mahrouqi.