Construction at the Marsa LNG project in the Omani port of Sohar passed 55% at the end of June, keeping the plant on course for start-up in the first quarter of 2028 — less than two years away.
Mahmoud bin Abdullah al-Hashmi, chief executive of OQ Exploration and Production, said construction is advancing at a marked pace and that the progress supports the company’s growth strategy in gas.
Marine works and port expansion
The current phase has involved dredging and deepening the navigation channel to give ships and carriers safe passage, alongside continued work on the marine jetty and coastal protection against wave action. Sohar port is also being expanded on its southern side.
A French-Omani venture
The project is developed by Marsa LNG, 80% owned by France’s TotalEnergies, with OQ Exploration and Production holding the remaining 20%.
What is being built
The scheme centres on a liquefaction plant with capacity of one million tonnes a year and a storage facility of 165,000 cubic metres, together with a marine bunkering hub described as the first of its kind in the Middle East and a 300 MW solar plant.
The liquefaction unit is designed to run fully on electricity, with the solar plant covering the project’s entire power needs. That configuration puts emissions intensity below 3 kilogrammes of CO2 equivalent per barrel of oil equivalent.
Sohar as a regional bunkering hub
Once the plant enters service, Sohar takes on a regional role in supplying ships with fuel, with liquefaction, storage, bunkering and solar generation combined on a single site.
This story was produced in the newsroom from the disclosed sources named above.
