PDO begins transition from hydrocarbons to energy

part of its concession — are currently under evaluation, said Restucci. “A lot of bids have come, which will take some time to evaluate, but before the end of the year you can start hearing announcements on this front,” he commented.

Furthermore, PDO is liaising with Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) — the sole procurer of all new power and water capacity connected to the national grids — on the latter’s 500 MW solar PV project plan currently under tender, the Managing Director said.

“We have put a lot of effort in studying the opportunity in wind and solar in the country — for power generation, power to ‘X’, solar to hydrogen, and other opportunities perhaps right through to desalination, and small scale delivery of 2 or 3 MW installations to displace diesel. So it’s a complete end-to-end approach with the gradual integration of those opportunities within our portfolio.”

Also making headway is the 1-gigawatt Miraah project that uses solar energy to generate the steam necessary to produce heavy oil from PDO’S Amal oilfield. Miraah is one of the world’s largest solar plants being built by Glasspoint Solar in collaboration with PDO. The first 100 MW of capacity was inaugurated early this year. “By the end of the year, we will have 300 MW installed at Miraah,” said Restucci.

Also in line with its broader embrace of low-carbon technologies, PDO has begun installing solar lighting across its licence. “We have installed more than 1,100 km of solar lights in the interior. We have just agreed to do another 500 or so kilometres of solar lights in the next phase,” he added.