The 6th annual Oman Energy Forum 2018, organised by the Gulf Intelligence, in cooperation with Petroleum

Development Oman (PDO), was inaugurated in Muscat yesterday.

The forum discusses challenges and opportunities in implementing the country’s energy transition strategy to achieve more sustainable economic and social growth, Oman News Agency (ONA) reported.

The forum focused on revising and adopting comprehensive recommendations related to implementing oil and gas projects to contribute to accelerating the energy changes in the Sultanate. The speakers highlighted a range of issues related to elements of energy changes including resource value chains for conventional fuels, security and reliability of supply and sustainability for different stakeholder groups.

Salim bin Nasser Al-Oufi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of

Oil and Gas highlighted the importance of oil and gas sectors and the need to support the oil projects that enhance the industry.

Abdul Amir bin Hussain Al-Ajmi, PDO External Affairs and

Value Creation Director said that the forum discusses a theme each year and that the sixth version of the forum discusses oil and gas research and studies by focusing on renewable energy.

He noted that oil and gas will remain the main source for energy in the coming decades and that PDO achieved a number of successes in this area, such as setting up a solar power plant at Amin field south of Oman.

Al-Ajmi pointed out that the aim of this forum is to link specialists under one umbrella and to streamline the efforts made in this area.

The Sultanate has one of the world’s highest solar densities and has already made some significant steps towards its energy transition strategy in its goal to generate 10 percent of its energy from renewables by 2025. The move towards adopting energy transition strategies across the Gulf region is propelled by an urgency triggered by rapid consumption of energy, which has grown by eight percent annually since 1972, compared to two percent for the world.