Much of modern industry relies on crude oil and its by-products, resulting in the continued growth in its global use, whether it be to produce petrochemicals (the building blocks of modern consumer products) or as fuel for transportation (including aviation and shipping).

Natural gas demand will also grow, especially in developing economies, due to the benefits it offers compared to other fossil fuels. Although products derived from the oil and gas industry are consumed across all countries globally, there are only a few nations who are major producers of these products. At OQ Trading, we act as the conduit to help the flow of these products from areas of production to areas of demand.

Having commenced trade as a marketer of Omani crude and refined products, today we organise our business lines across five main areas of focus:

Refined products are derived from crude oil through processes such as distillation and catalytic cracking. Refining is necessary to transform crude oil into products that fuel the modern economy.

The various refined products have different physical and chemical characteristics. OQ Trading’s refined products portfolio includes, but is not limited to, the below:

OQ Trading is a large trader of gasoil and diesel. The fundamental difference between these otherwise similar products is the sulphur content. This fuel has a broad range of use, and can be used to energize cars and ships and keep power plants running. OQ Trading specializes in blending and handling multiple grades of this fuel from the lowest sulphur available to higher sulphur grade.

This product has various applications, the main ones being feedstock for gasoline and the manufacture of petrochemicals. OQ Trading’s activities centre around supplying naphtha to OQ’s downstream business for aromatics production in Suhar. For this, OQ Trading sources this fuel from as far away as Northwest Europe and from closer to home sources. One of the output streams from OQ Downstream is a light naphtha which is used for gasoline blending and further conversion into other products. OQ Trading trades this product and uses it for its own gasoline blending purposes.

Aromatics are hydrocarbons that are mainly derived from oil and, in smaller quantities, from coal. The main Aromatics products are Paraxylene, Benzene, Toluene and Xylenes. They are primarily used as feedstock for a wide range of petrochemical intermediate products and to a lesser extent as octane boosters for gasoline blending.

Methanol provides a cost efficient way of converting natural gas to liquid, making it easily transportable as an essential chemical feedstock used to produce hundreds of everyday industrial and consumer items. It has also increasingly become a clean-burning, cost-competitive alternative fuel in a fast-growing market, especially in direct gasoline blending, methanol-to-olefins, and biodiesel.

OQ Trading is a leading global physical and derivative player in the petrochemical industry. We physically manage over 4.5 million tonnes per annum of different petrochemical products which range from Benzene, Toluene, Xylenes, Styrene Monomer, Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) and Methanol. As OQ Trading, we have access to production from our OQ assets of more than 1 million tonnes of Aromatics and 1.2 million tonnes of Methanol every year. In addition to these equity volumes, OQ Trading also has well-established global proprietary trading activities, which we leverage on to provide trading, supply-optimization and risk management services to our stakeholders and business associates.

OQ Trading’s dry bulk portfolio includes petroleum coke (petcoke), elemental sulphur (sulphur), primarily produced in the OQ refinery in Suhar, and urea produced in the OMIFCO plant in Sur. Petcoke and sulphur are both by-products recovered during the oil and gas production and refining processes, alongside other products such as gasoline, diesel and LPG. Petcoke is consumed globally as fuel by cement and power industries, and as an input to other industrial applications such as smelting for aluminium, steel and titanium. Sulphur has wide application across a variety of different industries including phosphoric acid, ammonium sulphate, single super phosphate (SSP) fertiliser, copper, nickel and uranium. The dry bulk desk commenced operations in early 2016, trading petcoke and sulphur in different markets including Asia, Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa. The variety of products under our dry bulk portfolio caters to diverse industries:

• Fuel Grade Petcoke – major fuel for cement, glass, steel and power plants.
• Anode (Green) Grade Petcoke – key raw material for calciners and Anode plants.
• Sulphur – used in fertilisers and phosphates.
• Urea - used as a starting material in the manufacture of plastics and drugs, in addition to its use as fertiliser and feed supplement.