Oman has signed a joint venture agreement with the German engineering firm Ferrostaal AG to build a methanol plant in the port city of Sohar at an estimated cost of 426 million dollars, a newspaper reported on Monday.
Oman Observer said the deal to develop the 5,000-tons per day plant was signed by state-owned Oman Oil Company with Ferrostaal, which is a member of the MAN group, and an Omani business group, Omzest.
Production is scheduled to start by the first quarter of 2005, the Observer said, without specifying when the accord was signed.
It said the project would benefit from the government's decision to allocate five trillion cubic feet (150 billion cubic metres) of natural gas for a heavy industrial zone planned in Sohar, 220 kilometers (135 miles) northwest of Muscat.
A 305-kilometer (185-mile) pipeline is to carry the gas to Sohar from Fahud in central Oman – MUSCAT (AFP)
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