Oman Gas to drive OOC’s energy infra growth plans

OOC’s oil and power infrastructure business streams brought under OGC-led vertical following organisational restructuring

Oman Gas Company (OGC), long the operator of the nation’s gas transportation system, has been positioned to take on a substantially enlarged mandate at the helm of newly restructured Oman Oil Company’s (OOC) Energy Infrastructure vertical.

A vision-strategy adopted by OOC for the new vertical envisions a significantly expanded remit for OGC, envisioning not only responsibility for the group’s midstream gas infrastructure business, but also its burgeoning oil and power infrastructure business streams as well, a top official said.

“It’s a far-reaching mandate that will place OGC on a growth trajectory with potentially global ambitions,” said Sultan Hamad al Burtmani, Acting Executive Managing Director of OGC.

“OGC will head the Group’s Energy Infrastructure businesses distributed across three main streams — Gas, Power and Oil. Our goal is to emerge as the undisputed leader in the gas infrastructure business in the region,” he added in an interview published in the company’s newly issued quarterly magazine ‘Interact’.

According to Al Burtmani, OGC has been designated as Oman Oil Company’s chosen platform to drive the growth of the group’s Energy Infrastructure vertical, whose activities are classified into three key ‘pillars’ centring on the Group’s gas, oil and power infrastructure activities.

The underlying objective behind OGC’s new ‘ Gas Infrastructure Pillar is to develop, expand, modernise and consolidate the Sultanate’s nationwide gas transportation network. This will likely include any infrastructure necessary to support imports of gas from cross-border sources in the future.

Furthermore, as part of its vision to serve as “the backbone of the Omani gas industry”, OGC is mulling a major revamp of its structure to become a regulated utility, according to the Acting Executive Managing Director.

“Our goal is to consolidate our gas transmission network assets into an integrated gas transmission operator, and then discuss with the government our conversion into a regulated business, similar to how energy infrastructure utilities operate in