National Gas offers energy solution to Salalah factories

19/04/2017 05:50 AST

The factories facing fuel shortage in Salalah may not have to struggle hard to get another source of energy to run their establishments smoothly with the availability of Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG).

A three-member team of National Gas, a 100 per cent Omani Company based in Muscat, arrived in Salalah and gave a detailed presentation on SNG at the Salalah chapter of Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industries (OCCI) on Tuesday.

The presentation-cum-meeting was held under the chairmanship of Ali Salim al Mashani, Director of Operations Raysut Industrial Estate. Present on the occasion were businessmen, industrialists, technical experts and business executives. The National Gas team comprised of Sanjeev Kumar Sinha, COO; Paresh Bhavsar, Business Development Manager; and Avishkar Gandhi, Senior Project Sales Executive.

National Gas CEO impressed upon the gathering that the energy solution was being used successfully in many countries worldwide and as a company the National Gas has installed the solution in some companies in Oman, UAE and Saudi Arabia. "All of them are functioning well," he emphasised.

SNG is a blend of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and diluents. The possible diluents are compressed air, biogas, digester gas, landfill gas and nitrogen. National Gas commonly uses compressed Air as diluents.

LPG air blending ratios ranges between 48 and 52. Though this is widely variable based on the gases making up the LPG. The method for determine these mixing ratios can be determined by calculating the WOBBE index of the desired blend to match that of natural gas.

"The solution suits very well to Salalah, as large scale developments are going on both in Salalah Free Zone (SFZ) and Raysut Industrial Estate (RIE). Natural gas is in short supply due to growing demand and we are here to fill that gap. as of now we are based in Muscat but very soon we will have our presence in Salalah," Sinha said.

Commenting on SNG's safety aspects, Sinha made it clear that it was both safe and productive as natural gas. "In terms of price comparison, the SNG solution is a little higher than the natural gas but cheaper than diesel and electricity. It is a fully viable energy solution for the industries."

Interacting with the businessmen and industrialists, Sinha offered installation support to all such companies or factories which opt for SNG.

Al Mashani of Raysut Industrial Estate, assured the gathering of all possible facilitation in ensuring energy solutions to the factories located in the RIE and exhorted the National Gas representatives to visit the factories and explore the possibilities for those who want to understand that how the SNG would work.

National Gas, according to Paresh Bhavsar, is the largest LPG supplier in Oman and is equipped with LPG gas bottling, logistics, industrial gas supply, onsite LPG plant design and installations. "We have several LPG and SNG projects in hand; cutting gas and aerosol propellant product used mainly in perfumes." With over three decades of experience National Gas representatives strongly endorsed SNG, as industries face energy supply challenge due to unavailability of natural gas due to local production mostly tied to export commitment and priority usage with power sector. Industries, according to them, can meet this energy supply challenge by relying on available alternatives.

Oman Daily Observer