Cannon Artes is proud to announce that it has been awarded by China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering (CPP) an important contract in Oman for the Ras Markaz Crude Oil Park.

The End Client is OTTCO, the Oman Tank Terminal Co, a subsidiary of Oman Oil Company. When completed, Ras Markaz will be one of the largest crude oil storage facilities in the world with a total capacity of up to 25 million barrels of crude oil. Ras Markaz is strategically located in the Indian Ocean away from the Straits of Hormuz, a potential bottleneck in the oil supply chain. The location provides proximity to the major oil reserves of the Gulf and easy access to markets in South Asia, the Far East and Africa. Ras Markaz is also connected through a  crude oil pipeline to the Duqm Refinery.

Under the contract, Cannon Artes will provide all the water treatment facilities connected with the oil storage terminal.

In particular, as a starting point, Cannon Artes will provide the Electrochlorination System. Starting from sea water the electrolytic process provides “on-site” generation of up to 2 Kg/hr of Cl2 in the form of Sodium hypochlorite. NaOCl is an important chemical widely used as biocide and disinfectant within the Oil Terminal for conditioning the sea water intake, the cooling water and the firefighting system. The Electrochlorination System allows significant savings related to sourcing, transportation and storage of Sodium Hypochlorite.

Sea water is also feeding the Desalination and Potabilization System which is capable to generate up to 100 m3 per day of potable water. Desalination is performed by means of Reverse Osmosis (RO), a purely mechanical process with low-salinity water permeating through the membranes when the feeding pressure exceeds the osmotic pressure of the solution. The RO membranes are in fact permeable to water but not to the dissolved salts. The RO system has been also designed to reduce the concentration of Boron within the limits set by the Guidelines on Drinking Water Quality of the World Health Organization.

Low-salinity water is then fed to the Mineralization System designed to provide the right hardness and quality of potable water to cater the needs of all people working on the site. Desalinated water is mineralized using  “dolomite” (natural lime) media that is able to add to the water hardness through both calcium, magnesium and carbonates  ions without any  increase of sodium or chloride ions. The solubility of carbonate of calcium/magnesium is obtained by transformation of Carbonates in Bicarbonates by pH control and gaseous CO2 injection.  Sodium hypochlorite is also injected at low concentrations to prevent any insurgence of bacteria or viruses.

In such conditions all parameters set by WHO’s Guidelines on Drinking Water Quality can be easily respected.

Mr Pasquale Punzo, Cannon Artes’ CEO, so commented the awarding: “We are really happy that CPP is considering Artes an experienced and reliable partner. This sensitive and critical Project will allow us to combine the experience in the Oil & Gas sector with the know-how in the full set of water treatment technologies”.

Mr. Massimo Motta, Country Manager Cannon Middle East, has spoken about this important acquisition.  Here his quotes: “ We have a strong track record with PDO in Oman and are delighted to have been awarded this latest project under CPP one of the major Contractor in Middle East”.

China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering (CPP) is a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Co and one of the world’s major players in the business of pipelines, oil storage and processing facilities with a track record of 100,000 km of oil and gas pipelines, 32 million m3 of oil storage tanks, 26 million m3 of underground oil storage, 50 refining facilities.