Yet another milestone is getting the first import of gas. We started the first export of gas within the GCC countries when we were supplying gas for three-and-a-half years to the UAE through the borders in Buraimi. We have then transformed the station as an import station as we have been importing gas through the Dolphin project all the way from Qatar.

OGC also received the Ministry of Manpower’s Award for the Best Omanisation as we achieved 92 per cent, which is the highest in the oil & gas sector. It is an achievement we are all proud of as it forms part of our duties to the Sultanate and its citizens.

What’s the new vision and strategy for the company?

A lot of ideas have been discussed with the shareholders and the government and we are definitely looking for OGC to grow. We have been actively helping the country and helping the government in various projects. We have initiated many projects including the Musandam project (for our sister company, Oman Oil Company Exploration & Production), which most people do not know, and the LPG project in Salalah, which is moving ahead with full steam. We are at the moment in the FEED design stage and hopefully by next year the EPC stage will start (for the LPG project in Salalah).

We are exploring the options of downstream of the LPG itself and there a few more options too. We are talking to our shareholders and exploring some of the promising areas where OGC can get involved. Hopefully, they will be finalized in the coming months.

OGC has taken up new projects like the Al Duqm pipeline, Salalah LPG and supporting Orpic’s NGL extraction project at Fahud. What is the significance of these projects in the benefit to the economy and the society?

The above three and many of our other projects are extremely essential projects. If we consider the LPG project, LPG is very essential to the country. This downstream is an area that we have been talking about for quite sometime. We are glad to have now managed to achieve it and we look forward to bettering it.

You can consider this as a kind of a pilot project. Once we successfully complete this, we could look at other options and may be put up similar stations or similar plants, maybe on a smaller scale as more gas is being distributed through the country and try to get the benefits of the heavier components in the gas. These are present in significant amounts and will add to the economy and hence, it is very important for us.

The Al Duqm pipeline is important for us but it is more important for the government and for the country. The government has invested a great deal in Duqm area and there are a lot of projects coming there. The first one that we know is coming up is the big refinery. Other factories and power plants are also expected to come up.

We are extremely interested in the other side, about 100 kilometers away from Duqm, which is Ras Al Markaz where a crude oil storage terminal is being built there by our sister company. That is why these kinds of projects are very important for us. They will facilitate in boosting the country’s economy and help in driving the country forward.

The oil & gas market as well as global economy is going through a volatile phase. How do you foresee these developments impacting the oil & gas sector in Oman?

My answer to this question is a personal view and need not necessarily reflect the opinion of OGC or our parent company. See, these fluctuations come in cycles and have happened in the past. The country will survive the current downturn as it has done in the past when things were even worse.  We have not slowed down anything and we have not stopped any major projects. We have been told that there is a possibility to re-phase certain phases of projects or some projects, which are not very important and can wait and we have been told that we can re-plan as required. But we haven’t been forced to do that. That indicates that the government is going ahead. I don’t think the government will be accepting any new projects unless there is something we need urgently.

Companies like ours will have to reduce our dependence on government support. We need to propel our growth in new ways, put in our equity and take loans, and go ahead with our business. This is our approach in OGC. We are hoping to have better flexibility to go to the market and do a better job with full responsibility. We are looking at various opportunities and options for the same. We are talking to sister companies who have some plants operated by contracts and we are in negotiations with them to see how we can help them in the coming years as we have been in operations for so many years and are very experienced.

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