Monday 09 / June / 2025
Muscat: Oman Oil Company (OOC), the Sultanate's investment arm in the oil and gas sector and energy-related projects, celebrated laying the foundation stone for both, the Salalah Liquefied Petroleum Gas (SLPG) and the Salalah Ammonia projects.
The ceremony was held under the patronage of Dr Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhy, the Minister of Oil and Gas, the Chairman of OOC, and attended by a number of their excellencies, honorables and officials from the government, as well as representatives from the private sector.
The SLPG project and the Salalah Ammonia project are both of national and strategic importance.
These projects are expected to contribute significantly to the development of industries in the Governorate of Dhofar, in addition to supporting the economic diversification vision of the Sultanate.
They reflect OOC's growth strategy to further enhance the added value in the midstream and downstream of the oil and gas sector, and contribute towards advancing existing and future petrochemical industries in the Sultanate.
Commenting on this occasion, Eng. Isam bin Saud Al Zadjali, Chief Executive Officer of OOC, said, “This is an important moment for us as OOC, where we continue to expand our investment portfolio locally, playing a vital role in being part of the economic zones across Oman.”
“We, as an investment arm of the country, strive to develop and invest in successful and sustainable economic projects in energy and related fields in Oman and abroad. Thus, such projects maximise the use of local resources and job opportunities, as well as enhance the leadership competencies in our country,” he said.
“The vision of the Sultanate is to promote investments in projects, in addition to supporting development plans aimed at diversifying sources of national income in the long term. Therefore, SLPG and Salalah Ammonia projects are part of Oman's integrated development plan to diversify its investments,” he added.
“SLPG is a strategic and pivotal investment with far-reaching effects for Oman, and thereby advancing the nation in terms of economic development and securing LPG supplies to the Governorate. The project will also help portray the Oman Gas Company’s (OGC) role in utilising natural gas to develop various downstream industries and create job opportunities for Omanis. We are excited to see the project moving ahead at a rapid-and-steady pace and on schedule,” said Sultan bin Hamed Al Burtmani, Acting Executive Managing Director of OGC.
“SLPG has the potential to create a new energy hub in Salalah, centering on the production of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) – a commercially valuable, low-carbon and economically competitive fuel that enjoys growing demand in domestic and international markets,” Al Burtmani added.
“The ammonia project is a result of a wider plan to invest in the sustainable growth of the national downstream industries. This project paves the way for future opportunities in Oman for the development of downstream industries and thus, maximises their value addition. The project will also harness in-country value, with a strong focus on the development of local resources and engagement of the local supply chain,” Awadh Al Shanfari, Managing Director of Salalah Methanol Company, said.
SLPG exemplifies a longstanding endeavour by OGC, a wholly owned company by OOC. The projects fall in line with the overarching strategic vision of the company, and thus, the establishment of SLPG was announced, as a new building block in its expanding portfolio of midstream assets. The plant is located in the Salalah Free Zone, adjoining the Port of Salalah, an important transshipment and logistics hub in the Indian Ocean.
The SLPG project is a strategic $826 million investment, developed on approximately 20 hectares of land within the Salalah Free Zone. The main LPG extraction plant will offer a processing capacity of around 8.8 million standard cubic metres of gas per day — a capacity commensurate with world-scale LPG plants.
UK-based international contractor Petrofac was awarded a lump sum engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to construct the LPG extraction plant.
LPG and Condensate Storage Facilities will be built at the nearby Port of Salalah on approximately 8 hectares. The plant will have local LPG truck loading facilities catering to domestic, industrial and commercial demand in the Dhofar Governorate.
Together with a dedicated export jetty, the Port of Salalah will become an international LPG and condensate export hub beginning 2020 when the project is fully operational.
SLPG will effectively contribute towards a competitive and sustainable local supply market, and further support the company’s commitment to the export of reliable and uninterrupted LPG gas and condensate products.
Salalah Methanol Company is building an ammonia plant, adjacent to the existing methanol plant, in an effort to diversify the existing methanol production by expanding into ammonia production.
The overall cost of the project is $463 million, which is expected to be completed by the year 2020. The feedstock of the plant is natural gas, supplied by the Ministry of Oil and Gas through OGC.The ammonia project is a non-conventional brownfield project built on existing SMC facilities, an expansion of SMC’s existing facilities, where 12 hectares of its land was allocated for the ammonia project and associated utilities. The plant will manufacture 1,000 metric tonners of ammonia per day, utilising the methanol plant’s hydrogen-rich purge gas as feedstock, making it capable of producing ammonia without sacrificing energy efficiency.
The plant will also enhance the sustainability, increase profitability and diversify the company’s product portfolio by targeting its main markets in India, Vietnam, Thailand, South Korea and Japan.
OOC is a national company owned by the Government of Oman. It was established in 1996 to seek investment opportunities in the energy sector locally and abroad.
The company plays a prominent role in supporting the Sultanate's efforts to diversify the local economy by investing in various commercial and industrial sectors, both locally and internationally.
