Oman orders facilitating Iranian business activities
Omani minister of commerce and industry in an order called for addressing the problems faced by Iranian businessmen in the Persian Gulf littoral state, announced Iran’s Embassy in Muscat.
Following a recent meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to Oman Mohammadreza Nouri Shahroudi, Oman’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidi in an order called for resolving issues faced by Iranian businessmen in the sultanate, read the statement released by Iran’s Embassy on Monday, IRNA reported.
The meeting between Nouri Shahroudi and Sunaidi, the embassy said, was aimed at bolstering trade and economic cooperation between Iran and Oman.
The two also discussed the upcoming Iran-oman joint economic commission meeting. The 17th Iran-oman Joint Economic Commission meeting is expected to be held on June 27-28 in Muscat.
Iran said in December 2017 that it has signed an agreement with Oman that could take both countries closer to an ambitious project to jointly export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to international markets.
Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh was quoted as saying that he had signed the agreement with his Omani counterpart Mohammed bin Hamad al-rumhi.
Zanganeh underlined that he expected it to expedite the preliminaries to start the conduit of Iranian gas to Oman.
Iran has for long been discussing the production of LNG in Oman’s Qalhat liquefaction plant. The project involves piping gas from southern Iran to the Persian Gulf sultanate and liquefying it into LNG for shipments to international markets.
Several international majors including Total and Shell have expressed interest in the project to install a subsea pipeline between the two countries. However, a series of hurdles including the route of the pipeline and the pricing formula had so far obstructed its progress.
Zanganeh was quoted by Shana as saying that the agreement that he had signed with al-rumhi envisaged assigning technical teams from both sides within the next few weeks to prepare a study concerning certain key points to move forward.
He stated that the points that experts still needed to address included the volume of gas to be piped to Oman, the technicalities over the construction of the pipeline, and the project’s financing mechanism.
The total length of the pipeline for the project is estimated to be over 400 kilometers. The onshore part will cover 200 kilometers from Iran’s southern Assalouyeh gas zone to Kuhmobarak in the southern province of Hormuzgan.
The marine section between Iran and Sohar Port in the neighboring sultanate will be 200 kilometers. Previous reports said a section of Iran’s gas that would be piped to Oman would be used for the sultanate’s domestic use while the rest would be turned into LNG in its Qalhat plant.