Sustainability: ‘Sohar Port and Freezone is looking to take advantage of excellent resources and its track record of attracting FDI to develop a hub around hydrogen electrolysis’: IEA
CONRAD PRABHU
@conradprabhu
Oman’s fledging initiatives in support of the country’s energy transition goals have been cited by the International Energy Agency (IEA) as illustrative of efforts that emerging and developing economies (EMDEs) must embrace as part of their commitments to mitigating the impacts of climate change.
The Paris-headquartered body, whose mandate is to support countries around the world achieve their secure and sustainable energy goals, has urged emerging and developing economies to accelerate their energy transition to help achieve global climate change abatement objectives.
“If energy transitions and clean energy investment do not quickly pick up speed in emerging and developing economies, the world will face a major fault line in efforts to address climate change and reach other sustainable development goals. This is because the bulk of the growth in global emissions in the coming decades is set to come from emerging and developing economies as they grow, industrialise and urbanise,” the Agency warned in its newly published special report on World Energy Investment 2021.
The report, titled ‘Financing Clean Energy Transitions in Emerging and Developing Economies’, references a number of initiatives that will contribute to the achievement of Oman’s energy transition goals. It noted in particular the planned development of a low-carbon based economy in and around Sohar Port and Freezone and the nearby industrial city.
“Economic zones and port authorities, such as Sohar Port in Oman, are facilitating clean energy planning around industrial hubs, supporting investments in efficiency and potentially low-emissions fuels,” said the report.
It explained: “A potential emerging economy example of an industrial cluster around clean energy is provided by Oman, where the Sohar Port and Freezone is looking to take advantage of excellent resources and its track record of attracting FDI to develop a hub around hydrogen electrolysis.
“The project is based on joint ownership with an international partner, the Port of Rotterdam – which is also collaborating with Chile on hydrogen projects – as well as technology from a German hydrogen developer and joint development of solar PV with an international oil major. The project would benefit from some of the sustainability measures that SOHAR has put in place in recent years, including efficiency standards for port buildings and the ongoing establishment of a new LNG liquefaction and bunkering facility, as well as offering discounted port tariffs to ships outperforming international emissions standards,” it stated.
Earlier this year, Oman Shell announced the formal launch of its 25-MW Qabas solar plant at Sohar Port and Freezone, demonstrating the commercial benefits of solar power for industrial purposes. The plant is located on a 50-hectare site within Sohar Freezone and consists of over 88,000 solar modules. The renewable electricity output from Qabas is supplied to a large ferrochrome production facility. Separately, TotalEnergies plans to set up a 1 million tons per annum LNG liquefaction plant at Sohar Port to produce LNG as a low-carbon marine bunker for shipping.
Additionally, the Sultanate has some “good examples” of the use of renewables to power upstream operations in the Oil & Gas sector, according to the IEA report. Reference is made here to the 1 GW Miraah solar thermal energy project that enables majority state-owned Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) to harness the sun’s energy to generate superheated steam that produce oil from the Amal West field.
Economic zones and port authorities, such as Sohar Port in Oman, are also facilitating clean energy planning around industrial hubs, supporting investments in efficiency and potentially low-emissions fuels, the report added.
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