Oman to spend $6bn on power sector by 2016

By V L Srinivasan

Muscat, Jan 25: Oman will spend over US$6bn in the next six years to meet the growing electricity demand and new power plants are being set up for the purpose, Chairman of Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW) H E Mohammed bin Abdullah al Mahrouqui said on Sunday.

The announcement was made at the inauguration of a two day seminar on ‘Using Coal for Power Generation’ in the Sultanate of Oman, organised by the Ministry of National Economy and held under the auspices of H E Maqbool bin Ali Sultan, Minister of Commerce and Industry.

H E Mahrouqui said that the spurt in the sultanate's economic and industrial activities has resulted in the demand for power shooting up from 1,823MW in 2000 to 3,808MW last year.

Power demand is estimated to be around 4,600MW by 2016. “This growth in demand is nearly three times compared to the industrialised nations and we require U$6bn for power and another US$2bn for water."

In a statement, H E Maqbool bin Ali Sultan said all power plants in the sultanate were gas and diesel based and there was no coal fired power plant so far.

He hoped that gas reserves would increase in future so that there is no need for coal to generate electricity. "Any country will have to consider alternatives to the use of fuel for generating electricity if there is insufficient gas."