Invensys wins major process control and safety system contract for fertilizer project in Oman

Invensys wins major process control and safety system contract for fertilizer project in Oman

Joint efforts by Invensys Asia Pacific and Invensys Middle East have won a US$3.8 million contract to supply a mesh network-based Foxboro automation system for use on a major, world class fertilizer Project in Oman, promoted by the Suhail Bahwan Group.

Currently under construction at Sohar, the US$638 million Sohar Fertiliser Project of Sohar International Urea & Chemical Industries SAOC (SIUCI) includes a 2000 mtpd (metric ton per day) ammonia plant, 3500 mtpd urea synthesis and granulation plant along with related utilities and offsite facilities. It is one of the world’s largest private sector greenfield fertilizer projects and is being built under an EPC contract by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) of Japan.
Under the terms of its contract, Invensys is to supply a Foxboro I/A Series Version 8 process control system. This uses advanced commercial communications technologies in robust industrial configurations that will give Sohar Fertiliser a high-availability, self-healing mesh process control network backbone capable of connecting thousands of stations at very high speeds.

The I/A Series process control system will be integrated with a Triconex TRICON emergency shutdown (ESD) system. The TRICON fault tolerant controller is based on aTriple-Modular Redundant (TMR) architecture. TMR employs three isolated, parallel control systems and extensive diagnostics integrated into one system. It uses two-out-of-three voting to provide high integrity, error-free, uninterrupted process operation with no single point of failure.

Invensys won this major contract as a result of its excellent reputation in Oman for after sales service, together with its close cooperation within Invensys Asia Pacific and Invensys Middle East during the tender evaluation phase of the project.