TotalEnergies and Oman’s national oil company, OQ Exploration & Production (OQEP), have officially begun construction on the Marsa LNG plant in Sohar, a key milestone in the region’s push toward low-carbon energy solutions.

The Marsa LNG project, expected to start production in Q1 2028, will serve as the first marine LNG bunkering hub in the Middle East. Its primary market will be marine fuel supply in the Gulf, a move aimed at reducing emissions from the shipping industry.

“This project is a major step forward in supporting the energy transition in marine transport,” the companies said in a joint statement issued May 1. “Marsa LNG will combine low-carbon technology and renewable energy to become one of the cleanest LNG plants in the world.”

The plant will have a capacity of 1 million tonnes per year (tpy) and is being developed by Marsa LNG LLC—a joint venture between TotalEnergies (80%) and OQEP (20%).What sets the project apart is its power source: the plant will be 100% electrically driven and fully powered by a 300-megawatt-peak (MWp) solar farm.

The companies project a greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of less than 3 kg CO₂e/boe for Scope 1 and 2 emissions, significantly lower than the LNG industry average of around 35 kg CO₂e/boe.

The project is also vertically integrated, combining gas production from onshore Block 10 with the LNG and solar operations, aligning with global efforts to decarbonize traditional fossil fuel operations.