Work is progressing fast on the construction of Sohar III, a green-field, integrated combined-cycle gas turbine power plant located in Sohar Port. The project is valued at over $1 billion and is on track to commence commercial operations by January 2019.
With more than enough capacity to power new developments in the recently announced Sohar Port South and Sohar Freezone Phase II expansions, the new plant will have a power output of over 1,700 Megawatts, making it Oman’s second largest power station. Developed by Shinas Generating Company SAOC, the project is in partnership with Mitsui, ACWA Power and Dhofar International Development and Investment Holding.
The sole off-taker will be Oman Power and Water Procurement Company, who will supply the power produced to Oman’s national grid.
Mark Geilenkirchen, Sohar CEO, explained the importance of the new plant to Sohar: “We have seen sustained double-digit growth in Sohar for over twelve years now, and we are 100 per cent on track for continued expansion.
Our role is to ensure that world-class infrastructure is in place before our incoming tenants require it, so they do not experience delays when commencing production. In times of budgetary constraints right across the GCC, Sohar has once again shown it is possible to develop, finance, build, own and operate a large-scale high performance power plant like this one with a significant share of private investment. Since we started operations here in 2004, public-private partnerships have been at the core of our success story — made in Sohar.”
Sohar Freezone CEO, Jamal T Aziz, added: “The first phase of Sohar Freezone is practically leased out and our technical teams are now busy planning phase-two.
The current levels of international interest from investors, especially in the food and logistics sectors is phenomenal and sufficient network power at reasonable rates is a prerequisite to the continued smooth growth of Sohar Freezone.”