Oman Announces Completion of $10.4bn of National Projects Ahead of National Day
Oman Investment Authority (OIA) has announced the completion of six national projects, with a value of OR4bn ($10.4bn).
The projects are geographically distributed in a number of governorates and in diverse sectors, including a giant refinery, an oil storage facility and a luxury hotel.
Other major projects recently finished in Oman include a massive shrimp farm and utilities developments.
Oman national projects
Hisham Ahmed Al Shidi, Director General of Economic Diversification Investments at the OIA, said that these projects aim to contribute to economic diversification, attract investments, empower the private sector, create job opportunities and offer business opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
He added that the projects reflect the strategy and objectives of the OIA, and come aligned with Oman Vision 2040.
Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries (OQ8) Project is known to be the largest project executed in the Duqm economic zone.
The project is considered as the starting line for the plan to transform Duqm into one of the largest industrial and economic centres in the region.
The project includes three key areas:
- Main processing units at the refinery, facilities and services, storage and export facilities for liquid petroleum materials at Duqm Port
- The crude oil storage facility in Ras Markaz
- The 81-km long crude oil transmission pipeline from Ras Markaz to Duqm Refinery
The refinery includes 10 main processing units capable of producing diesel, jet fuel, liquefied petroleum gas, sulphur and petroleum coal, with a capacity of 230,000 barrels per day.
The Ras Markaz Crude Oil Storage project, in Al Wusta Governorate, promotes the government’s efforts in the field of economic diversification.
It achieves several economic and commercial values, such as storing crude oil in Oman with high capacity that goes up to 200m barrels, with a storage capacity up to 26.7m barrels in the first phase, allocating of 5.2m barrels to the Duqm Refinery (OQ8).
In addition, the facility is set to export Omani oil by connecting it to the Nihayda Station, which serves as another port to export Omani crude oil, along with Mina Al-Fahal, in Muscat.
Due to its strategic location near the emerging markets in Asia and Africa, the project is capable to address the demands of local and global markets, and will contribute to increasing the number of offshore oil transportation vessels coming to Oman.
The Duqm Integrated Power and Water Project (DIPWP) in Duqm will meet the electricity and water needs of OQ 8 (Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries).
It will also attract investments to the Duqm Special Economic Zone by providing industrial electricity and water needs to heavy industry companies which are looking to invest in the region.
Furthermore, it will meet the future expansions in Duqm Economic Zone, and provide electric power to the Crude Oil Storage project.
The design capacity of the station is 326 MW of electricity and 36,000 cubic meters of water/day.
Moreover, the station includes facilities for taking sea water with a supply capacity of up to 1.5 million cubic meters/day, in addition to a water return line with a capacity of up to one million cubic meters/day.
“Rabt” project is one of the strategic projects in Duqm. The first phase consists of 660km length, with 400 Megawatt of transmission lines, and five main stations in Nihayda, Park, Suwayhat, Duqm, and Mahout.
The project will boost the efficiency and integration of the National Electricity Transmission Network and will play a pivotal role in enhancing the reliability and safety of electric energy.
It will also contribute to build great prospects for renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind energy, in Al Wusta Governorate.
It connects remote areas from the main electricity transmission network, including Haima, Duqm and Mahout.
It also reduces the cost of energy produced in Duqm and Mahout, which currently depends on diesel fuel and has effects on the environment.
Khuwayma Shrimp Farm Project in Jalan Bani Bu Ali, Governorate of South A’Sharqiyah, contributes to achieving food security and establishing other industries to enhance the value added of the raw materials available in the Sultanate of Oman.
The project is built on an area of 200 hectares, containing 126 aquariums, a shrimp nursery unit of 48 aquariums, a care unit for shrimps after the larvae stage, a primary processing unit, and a production and packaging unit.
The operational capacity of the project is 4,000 tons/year.
Supporting the tourism sector in the country, JW Marriott Muscat Hotel has 304 rooms and suites, and sets an outstanding example for tourism development by exploiting the natural resources to achieve long-term goals, supporting economic diversification efforts, raising the direct and indirect contribution of the tourism sector to the GDP.
It will also generate direct employment opportunities for the national workforce.
The hotel is one of the main aspects complementing the first phase of Madinat Al Irfan East.
With the completion of the hotel, the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre complex will be completed with its integrated facilities to become a growing destination for welcoming and hosting major conferences, events, and local, regional, and international events.
