Oman launches six projects worth OMR4.6bn

Muscat, The Gulf Observer: The Secretariat General for National Celebrations of Oman concluded the preparation of a programme for opening national projects to mark Oman’s 53rd National Day celebrations.

Within the context of the National Day celebrations programme, Oman Investment Authority (OIA) recently announced the opening of six projects: Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Industries company project, Duqm Integrated Power and Water Station, Ras Markaz Crude Oil Park, Khuwaimah Shrimp Farm, an electricity transmission project and JW Marriott Hotel Muscat.

The projects will contribute to enhancing economic diversification and attracting more investments.

The total cost of the projects to be opened will stand at OMR4.65 billion.

Various departments of the State’s Administrative Apparatus will open a number of sustainable development projects worth more than OMR650 million. The projects include the opening of a production assembly station in Greater Saqr area, a fishing jetty, a shipping and customs service station, infrastructure tasks at the government dock in the port of Duqm and other projects.

The 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, and 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 promotes the government’s efforts in the field of economic diversification. It achieves several economic and commercial values, such as storing crude oil in the Sultanate of Oman with high capacity that goes up to 200 million barrels, with a storage capacity up to 26.7 million barrels in the first phase, allocating of 5.2 million 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), and 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, 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 326MW of electricity and 36,000 cubic metres of water/day. Moreover, the station includes facilities for taking sea water with a supply capacity of up to 1.5 million cubic metres/day, in addition to a water return line with a capacity of up to one million cubic metres/day. >A3

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 4000 tonnes/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, and generating direct employment opportunities for the national workforce.