MUSCAT // Oman plans to build a 230km pipeline to carry gas to Duqm, the new industrial city on the eastern coast, a project official said yesterday.
"We are floating a tender for the bids of building the gas pipeline to Duqm," Yahya Al Zadjali, the head of planning of the Duqm Special Economic Zone, told delegates at a conference in Muscat.
"We hope the project to be completed in 2017 to fuel industrial projects in the new industrial area," he said.
Mr Al Zadjali did not say how much the pipeline would cost but an official at the Oman Tender Boardsaid the pipeline would cost "in the region of US$200 million[Dh734.6m] to $220m to construct."
The gas supply will be provided by the state-run Petroleum Development Oman from one of its largest gasfields in central Oman.
Oman is developing Duqm to be the second industrial city after Soharin the north-east of the sultanate, in its bid to diversify its oil dependent economy.
A port and airport are under constructions at Duqm. The once-sleepy fishing village will be also home to a planned 200 barrels per day oil refinery and a petrochemicals plant.
The government also plans to attract foreign investment in the Duqm free zone, which is under development, with incentives such as five-year corporate tax haven and no income tax.
Oman is currently pumping an average 880,000 barrels per day of crude oil and about 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year.
* The National
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