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FIND OUT HOW COLLEAGUES ON THE DUQM REFINERY PROJECT SPENT THEIR DOWNTIME

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Spending time away from home and family can be difficult. For Petrofac colleagues on the Duqm Refinery project in Oman, that’s what they have had to do for extended periods since work began in 2018.

“When you look at five years as a percentage of your life, you realise what you’ve personally invested in the project,” says Tarek Khazbak, Project Controls Manager. “I know that we can all feel pride at what we have achieved in Duqm.”

Colleagues have poured their energy into the project with the collective goal of turning an empty patch of land on the edge of the Arabian Sea into what it is now: a giant, state-of-the-art oil refinery that effectively runs as its own small town. When looking at this accomplishment in the short time frame that it has been achieved, you would be forgiven for thinking that every second of colleagues’ lives on site revolved around work.

They spoke to Petrofacts about the ‘work hard, play hard’ spirit on the Duqm Refinery project, where people from many different backgrounds and cultures formed a second family that socialised and kept active together…albeit with a healthy dose of competition.

WORDS ESSAM ALJAEDY

PUBLISHED MAY 2023

“Colleagues spoke to Petrofacts about the ‘work hard, play hard’ spirit on the Duqm Refinery project.”

THE VILLAGE IN THE DESERT

Located in the centre of Duqm town and about a 20-minute drive away from the refinery is the Renaissance Village where colleagues stay. It is a business and workforce accommodation complex with a capacity of 17,000. Facilities here include two gyms, an indoor swimming pool, grocery store, barber shop, and coffee and shisha shops.

“There have been times where this complex has been full,” says Charbel Diab, Site Director. “At times here there have been over 30 nationalities living in one place. Other organisations and projects stay at the same complex too and the British and American army were also based here briefly. We all interact well together.”

The accommodation complex in DUQM where colleagues stay

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Charbel Diab

“What I found on this project is that people have not had limitations or borders.”

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The Petrofac-Samsung joint-venture (PSJV) team ahead of the basketball tournament

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Colleagues regularly keep fit and compete with each other at the on-site gym

KEEPING FIT TOGETHER

With good facilities at the accommodation complex for sporting activities, colleagues organised football, basketball, cricket and volleyball matches, planned via WhatsApp group chats that included members of the client team.

Colleagues even organised a basketball tournament, with different companies represented. Eddy Anouzi, Commissioning and Maintenance Manager explains, “There were eight teams, including Petrofac, Samsung, OQ8, and our other EPC contractor TRD. This tournament is a sore subject for us because Petrofac were runners-up and didn’t win!”

There is a bowling alley nearby where colleagues regularly play together on Thursday night. “We have had many funny moments bowling together where certain colleagues have not been able to stay out of the gutter,” says Eddy. “We also challenge each other to table football here, which of course gets competitive and includes some joking and teasing of each other’s skills.”

Contrary to other regions in the Middle East, parts of Oman, including Duqm, have mostly pleasant weather all year round due to sea breezes brought in by the Indian Ocean. Walking and cycling are common activities, with colleagues regularly walking together to the beach 5km from the complex. As relaxing as this sounds, you can trust the team in Duqm to make it interesting, “We time ourselves and have competitions to beat our own and each other’s personal records just by walking,” says Monzer Chammas, Deputy Project Director.

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Eddy Anouzi

Monzer Chammas

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A tense game of table football in Duqm

With the horizon in the distance, the pipelines from the Black Sea are visible in the cleared area of land; post-construction much of the area will be returned to its previous condition. (Read more about the reinstatement work here). To the bottom of the main site is the camp for workers, comprising two canteens, a gym, recreational areas, accommodation and offices. The camp was as big as the facility and home to 2,500 workers at peak.

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WORLD CUP FEVER   

The whole world seemed engrossed in the FIFA Men’s World Cup that took place in Qatar in 2022 and colleagues in Duqm were caught up in it too. “Getting together and watching matches was great for socialising after long working days,” says Tarek Khazbak. The team devised a plan for perfect football viewing, as Charbel Diab describes: “We hired a space on site for the whole tournament. We put a big screen in there and we rented a popcorn machine from the complex and people brought snacks to share too. To create the World Cup atmosphere in this space our Recreation Manager, Charbel Hayek, printed and hung flags for all countries taking part.”

The World Cup being hosted in the Middle East for the first time worked well for colleagues in Duqm. “Games were on at a perfect time for us,” says Elie Karam, Deputy Maintenance Manager. “People supported different teams so there was a lot of friendly teasing but the three most popular teams were Brazil, Germany or Argentina. All the Messi fans were celebrating loudly in the end.”

Watching football in style! Colleagues in DUQM made the most of the 2022 World Cup

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Tarek Khazbak

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Elie Karam

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Man’oushe Za’atar, a flatbread topped with aromatic herb and spice blends. A popular street food snack in Duqm

THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE OF FOOD

The different cultures on site has been reflected in the food provided in the mess hall at the complex. As well as a broad continental offering, different cuisines cater to the larger communities, including Indian, Filipino and Korean. There are also local dishes served – a mess hall favourite for colleagues being Mulukhia, a green soup made from jute leaves cooked in a broth. This dish is different depending on the Arab region.

Away from the complex, there are restaurants that also provide international cuisines, including burgers and southern fried chicken. There are also street food vendors, where colleagues buy snacks such as Man’oushe Za’atar, a flatbread topped with aromatic herb and spice blends. “Local businesses in Duqm have benefitted because of the refinery and its workers, with more and more opening nearby in the last two-three years,” says Monzer Chammas.

On weekends and special occasions such as birthdays, colleagues enjoy meals at one of the several hotels built in the last five years in Duqm, with the Crowne Plaza by the tourist beach a popular choice. Tarek Khazbak reflects: “Celebrating birthdays is a tradition in most cultures and it has been important for us on this project to take time, connect and make a big deal about it for each other.”

One certainty on site is that whatever the occasion – whether a birthday or celebration of a project milestone – there is going to be a cake.

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Man’oushe Za’atar, a popular street food snack in Duqm

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Colleagues in Duqm celebrating Oman National Day

MAKING TIME TO CELEBRATE

Staff celebrate every Omani national day together on site in the main office. In the past, flags have been put up around the site and Omani colleagues wear the local shoal and headdress and all colleagues listen to Omani music together. Elie Karam adds: “This day usually includes speeches from our Omani colleagues about the country, culture and what this project means to Oman.”

“What I found on this project is that people have not had limitations or borders,” says Charbel Diab. “We participate in each other’s traditions; we celebrate Eid with all colleagues, we put trees and lighting up for Christmas, and we get together for special occasions such as India Independence Day. In my experience, this openness isn’t limited to the feeling on just our site in Duqm but all of Oman where different cultures are embraced.”  

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Taking time to celebrate birthdays has been important in Duqm

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Immense water storage tanks for boiler-grade water at the CPF. Managing the quality and quantity of water is one of the key features of the CPF. Water for field operations comes from the Al-Sulaibiya station 123 km away. It then goes through a treatment plant which can process an incredible 1,350 cubic metres of water per hour – to give you an idea of what a huge volume this is, an Olympic swimming pool contains 2,500 cubic metres. The boiler-grade water is then used in the steam generators below.

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Towering steam generators are perhaps the most striking pieces of equipment onsite and they take on a different appearance from day to night. Made from carbon steel and with a capacity of 57 tons/hr of steam, they are absolutely pivotal in the project, as they generate the steam needed to inject into the wells and lower the viscosity of the oil.

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Workers next to the process area where the oil is cleaned and treated. Sand is removed and any remaining water is also separated out. The extracted oil is piped to southern Kuwait for shipping around the world, so this is a critical stage to avoid any corrosion of this pipeline. Meanwhile, the water with traces of hydrocarbon is returned to disposal wells in the desert, while sand is disposed of in a designated zone. In future, an additional water treatment plant will be set up to treat and recycle this water for the generation of steam.

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One of three huge tanks for storing the treated oil – each one can store 60,000 barrels of oil. Once the oil is cleaned it is stored in these export tanks, where it remains until it is exported to another tank farm in the south of Kuwait.

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Fire water tanks and pumps in the CPF area – which are crucial to the safety of the site.

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Mission control for the plant. Plant operators monitor and control operations from here 24/7.

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Finally, the heavy crude is transported from the CPF to a tank farm 162 km away in Ahmadi, so the oil can be shipped from nearby ports.

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Petrofac upgraded the technology and equipment in the south’s Crude Oil Control Centre. This centre also controls the blends of heavy oil from the Ratqa field in the north with lighter crudes from the south using a blending package provided by Petrofac.

We also migrated the existing control facilities for the entire Kuwait operations into this new building, using the latest state-of-the-art Orion operations and monitoring consoles to improve the effectiveness of operations.

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Finally, the heavy crude is transported from the CPF to a South Tank Farm 162 km away in Ahmadi, near the border with Saudi Arabia, so the oil can be shipped from nearby ports. The first batch of oil from Lower Fars has now been exported from the site to a refinery in Kuwait. In the coming weeks, the first official shipment of half a million barrels of oil will also leave the facility.

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