Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has awarded a contract to build a 100MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant to The Marubeni Consortium.

Marubeni is a Japanese-Omani consortium comprising of Japan’s Marubeni Corporation, Oman Gas Company, Bahwan Renewable Energy Company and Modern Channels Services.

According to the statement from PDO, the plant will provide power for PDO’s interior operations and be the first of its type in Oman. It will also be the world’s first utility-scale solar project to have an oil and gas company as the sole wholesale buyer of electricity.

The project will be located at Amin in southern Oman in PDO’s concession area, approximately 210 km north-west of Thumrait. The project will include the design, procurement, construction, commissioning, financing and operation, and maintenance of the PV plant.

According to the company, the project’s power output will be structured as an independent power producer (IPP) under the terms of the power purchase agreement for a period of 23 years.

Raoul Restucci, managing director at PDO sad: “We look forward to working with the Marubeni Corporation and consortium partners to build our first IPP renewable energy project, which is another building block in support of Oman’s outstanding potential in renewable energy.”

More information will be available on the 7 November during the awarding ceremony, said the PDO release.