A high-level team of executives representing TotalEnergies in the Sultanate of Oman recently visited the waterfront site at Sohar Port and Free Zone where a much-anticipated, low-carbon LNG terminal project is being readied for construction.

Marsa LNG, the joint venture partnership of TotalEnergies (80 per cent) and Oman’s OQ Group (20 per cent), is developing the 1 million tonnes per annum capacity LNG terminal whose LNG output is primarily earmarked as a low-carbon bunker fuel for maritime shipping. Total investment in the venture, billed as the first wholly electric-powered LNG plant in the region, is estimated at $1.6 billion.

Signalling the imminent start of construction work on the project, Sergio Georgi, TotalEnergies Country Chair Oman, who is also CEO & Chairman Marsa LNG, announced in a post on Tuesday:

“Visiting the future Marsa LNG site. One day before receiving our first contractor in Sohar, we performed a site visit of the future plant location and met with some of our stakeholders and future neighbours: SIPC, OQRPI, Advario, Majis, CB&I.”

Georgi was referencing leading stakeholders, industrial tenants, terminal operators and other service providers in whose proximity the new LNG terminal is set to come up. The list includes Sohar Industrial Port Company (the landlord operator of Sohar Port), OQRPI (which owns and operates the integrated Sohar Refinery, polypropylene and aromatics complex), Advario (the operators of the liquid bulk terminal), Majis (the provider of integrated water solutions at the port, and CB&I (the world's leading designer and builder of storage facilities, tanks and terminals).

“Marsa LNG, a full electric, low emissions LNG bunkering Hub in the Middle East and the story starts now! Day 1!” added Georgi in his post.

Earlier this year, Marsa LNG named French engineering contractor Technip Energies as the winner of a contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of the LNG bunkering terminal. The plant will use electric-driven motors instead of conventional gas turbines and will be powered by renewable electricity from a planned nearby solar farm which will cover 100 per cent of the annual power consumption of the LNG plant.

Separately, CB&I, a wholly owned subsidiary of McDermott, won a contract for the engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) of a full containment concrete liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage tank. The LNG project is expected to be operational in 2028.