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Oman LNG has awarded a pair of contracts to local firms for provision of maintenance services at its Qalhat liquefied natural gas (LNG) production complex near Sur, located in the sultanate’s South Al-Sharqiyah governorate.

Bahwan Engineering Company (BEC) for turnaround maintenance services during planned and unplanned plant shutdowns at the Qalhat LNG complex. The duration of the contract is six years.

The Oman Construction Company (Toco) won a general maintenance services contract “to enhance the efficiency and reliability of operations” at the Qalhat facility, . The duration of this contract is five years.

Oman LNG is a joint venture of the sultanate’s Energy & Minerals Ministry, which holds the majority 51% stake, and foreign stakeholders. The remaining 49% is held by UK-based Shell, which has a 30% share; TotalEnergies with 5.54%; South Korea’s Korea LNG with 5%; Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation with 2.77%; Japan’s Mitsui & Company with 2.77%; Thailand’s PTTEP, which holds 2% following the acquisition of Portuguese firm Partex; and Japan’s Itochu Corporation with 0.92%.

Oman LNG secured $2bn-worth of project financing in 1997 to set up its first LNG export terminal in the sultanate, the Qalhat LNG terminal, which was commissioned in 2000.

From 1 September 2013, Qalhat LNG was integrated with Oman LNG to form a single entity.

The terminal exports gas produced by state oil and gas producer Petroleum Development Oman from its central Oman gas field complex. Oman LNG’s customers are mainly based in Asia, although the company has been expanding its client base outside the continent in recent months.

Oman LNG currently operates three trains at the site with a nameplate capacity of 10.4 million tonnes a year (t/y). Due to debottlenecking, the company’s production capacity has increased to about 11.4 million t/y.

In July, Oman LNG announced that it would build a new train at its Qalhat LNG complex, with an output capacity of 3.8 million t/y. When commissioned in 2029, the fourth train will increase Oman LNG’s total production capacity to 15.2 million t/y.

Oman LNG said it will perform the preliminary engineering study for the planned LNG train. In November, Oman LNG appointed US-based consultant KBR to perform the front-end engineering and design work on the project.

Photo credit: Oman LNG via