(AFP / LOU BENOIST)
Extension of gas extraction rights, liquefaction plant and solar park to power it: TotalEnergies announced on Monday additional investments in the Sultanate of Oman to produce LNG, with a contract worth more than 500 million euros. euros for Technip Energies.
Since 2021, TotalEnergies has joined forces with the national oil company of this strategic Gulf country, OQ, to create a joint venture that produces natural gas from the Mabrouk North-East field, on which it will now have rights until 2050, according to a press release.
Production started in January 2023 and “reached its plateau” in April 2024. The next stage will be the start in 2028 of the production of liquefied natural gas intended to supply ships with fuel in the Sohar plant, a port located not far from the exit from the Strait of Hormuz, strategic for the export of oil from several Gulf countries.
The construction of this factory enabled the engineering specialist Technip Energies to win a “substantial” contract, that is to say between 500 million and one billion euros, he announced in a press release.
The contract involves the engineering, procurement and construction of a natural gas liquefaction train with a production capacity of one million tonnes per year.
This factory will be supplied with energy by a solar park with a maximum power of 300 MW which is the subject of “very advanced discussions” between TotalEnergies (49%) and OQ Alternative Energy (51%). The discussions concern a set of projects with a total capacity of 800 MW.
TotalEnergies and Technip insist in their press release that this plant will be “one of the LNG plants with the lowest carbon intensity in the world”, which should make it possible to “reduce emissions from the maritime transport sector” thanks to “the use of LNG as a marine fuel.