Gas-based power generation will soon become a reality in Oman’s Musandam Governorate when the first Independent Power Project (IPP) comes into operation next February, according to the Oman Daily Observer newspaper.
Musandam Power Company (MPC), a joint venture of the wholly government owned investment entity Oman Oil Company and LG International Corp of South Korea, is currently developing the 120-megawatt (MW) capacity plant at Tibat.
When brought online in February 2017, the new IPP will supplement diesel-based generation output operated by the Rural Areas Electricity Company (RAECO), a subsidiary of the Nama Group tasked with providing electricity and potable water coverage in areas falling outside the nation’s grid-connected zones.
According to Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP), the sector’s sole procurer of new electricity generation and water desalination capacity, the new Musandam IPP will meet projected electricity demand growth in the governorate at least through 2022.
RAECO currently owns and operates a string of diesel-based power stations offering a combined installed capacity of around 91 MW in the governorate.
The largest of these plants – a 57 MW capacity diesel powered station – currently supplies Khasab town.
Importantly, the IPP is under construction not far from a new oil and gas processing plant at Tibat, owned and operated by the Oman Oil Company Exploration & Production LLC (OOCEP), a subsidiary of Oman Oil Company.
The Musandam Gas Plant, as it is known, processes production fluids from the nearby offshore Bukha A and West Bukha fields and has a processing capacity of up to 20,000 barrels of crude, 45 million cubic feet of gas and 75 tonnes of LPG per day. Part of the natural gas output will be used to power the new IPP.
With its anticipated launch early next year, the new Musandam power project will add to the infrastructure of the governorate – the Sultanate’s strategically important enclave in the north, overlooking the Strait of Hormuz.
