At a ceremony on 5 July, John Malcolm, Managing Director of Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), officially inaugurated a major power station that will provide electricity to a number of key future oil and gas facilities in the Qarn Alam area.
The power station, costing $58 million, has two Frame-6FA gas turbines that in combination will provide 100-140 megawatts of power to the electrical grid – enough to run a medium-sized town. It is, in fact, the largest that PDO has built.
Malcolm welcomed the surplus of electrical power that the station will provide the company this summer. But he also pointed out that the power station had a vital role to play in the future. “The hot exhaust gases from the turbines can be used to generate the steam that will be required for PDO’s Qarn Alam enhanced oil recovery project, which is one of the key projects that will sustain the company’s oil production for the long term.”
Constructing the station was not easy. “Building the plant involved overcoming numerous logistical challenges,” said Infrastructure Project Leader Harith al Amry. “The generator, the heaviest piece to be handled, transported and erected, weighed 165 tonnes. Considerable planning was needed to get it onto the site. Once at the site, the generator was painstakingly moved onto its plinth, the building of which was a massive engineering feat in itself.”
Apart from the logistical and engineering challenges, the tight project schedule of just two years posed a challenge of its own. “It was critical that we finish the job on schedule,” said Mr al Amry. In the end, the plant was commissioned on time. And despite having 300 staff deployed at site at the peak of construction activity, the project was finished without a lost-time injury. (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
