The plant will process up to 20 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of natural gas from the Kauther field, which was discovered in 2001.

In a 22 February statement, PDO managing director John Malcolm said that the plant was of great importance to Oman’s economy. “It was built in record time and came in two months ahead of schedule,” he added.

The UK’s Petrofac was the engineering, construction, and procurement contractor on the $240m project, and is expected to operate the plant for its first 12 months.

According to the statement, the plant is connected to 14 production wells on the Kauther field.

Processed gas will be passed on to Muscat and Sohar via a 85 kilometre pipeline. Condensate and hydrocarbons liquids produced at the plant will be transported to the Saih processing plant and the Minah Al Fahal crude export terminal through a 103km pipeline and PDO’s main oil pipeline.