Gaining the API monogram and ISO9001 certifications, in addition to OWC class G production and sale have been one of the significant achievements for Oman Cement Company (OCC) in the past year, according to chief executive officer Jamal Shamis Al Hooti.

OCC provides oilwell cement Class G (HSR), conforming to API spec 10A, and satisfied clients in the Sultanate include PDO, Dowell Schlumberger, Occidental Oman and MB Petroleum. For PDO, OCC has a two-year contract to provide 7,000 tonnes per year of oilwell cement for operations in the Fahud area in the North of the country.

OCC is able to offer a competitive edge to its clients by providing product of consistent quality at highly competitive prices, backed up by high class technical service, said Al Hooti.

Although the oil and gas sector accounts for approximately two per cent of OCC's total business at present, the company has plans to expand its scope of services.

OCC facilities have been consistently expanded, since the establishment of the plant in 1983, to meet burgeoning industrial and infrastructural development demands in the Sultanate. Most recently, the company commissioned a 2,000 tonnes per day kiln in 1999, thus doubling production capacity of clinker to 1.2 million tonnes per year. The expansion also included a gas-based power plant, which enables OCC to maintain world-class quality by ensuring uninterrupted power supply.

Key machinery at the plant includes a mobile limestone crusher; a continuous homogenising-cum-storage silo for raw meal; low pressure drop cyclones; IKN clinker cooler; IHI-NSF flash furnace precalciner; electrostatic precipitators; O-sepa high efficiency dynamic classifiers; closed circuit crushing of silica rock and a Linkman system for optimised kiln operation.

Plant operation is supported by a fully automatic laboratory which performs on-line analysis and controls the quality of raw materials, raw meal, kiln feed, clinker and cement on a real time basis using a robot, automatic sample collection, preparation and analysis by X-ray fluorescence spectrometers, X-ray diffractometers and laser granulometer.

From its state-of-the-art facilities, OCC manufactures cement products according to customers' requirement and relevant specifications. Its range of cements includes Portland Blast Furnace Slag cement, Low Alkali cement, High Early Strength cement, and Oilwell cements Class A and Class G (HSR).

OCC's oilwell cement conforming to API 10A Class G is a high sulphate resistance grade, tested by Halliburton World wide and Dowell Schlumberger for conformity to API specifications. The product is easy to disperse and can result in considerable cost savings for end-users, according to the company.

All raw materials required for production are indigenous to Oman, with limestone deposits, additives, silica and ferrogenous quartzophylites located adjacent to the plant site.

In line with the Sultanate's drive towards environmentally-friendly operations in the oil and gas sector, OCC has established an environmental management system, and is currently pursuing ISO14001 certification. OCC has had a keen interest in environmental issues at the plant, with special consideration given to noise abatement and suspended particulate emission in the manufacturing process.

OCC symbolises the Sultanate's drive for self-reliance in core industries, consolidating the nation's efforts for infrastructure development and creating resources to achieve self-sufficiency, according to the company. Training of Omani nationals is also a key to a more successful future for the company, with Omanisation rates at approximately 55 per cent, a figure which looks sure to rise in coming years.