The Omani government is planning to build a $200 million pipeline to supply gas for the expansion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the eastern coastal town of Sur.

The 48-inch, 265-km-long pipeline will connect Saih Nihaydah in central Oman to the Oman LNG terminal in Sur, and will have a capacity to deliver 60 million cu m of natural gas per day. It will be connected to an upstream gas plant operated by state-run Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), which has a capacity of 40 million cu m of gas per day. Last year, PDO awarded a $100 million contract to Canadian firm SNC Lavalin to increase plant capacity by 50 per cent.

The government would award the pipeline contract by the year end and its completion is expected to take place in the last quarter of 2005.