Oman’s revived Masirah sea bridge project to tap tidal energy

Oman’s revived Masirah sea bridge project to tap tidal energy

Oman’s revived Masirah sea bridge project plans to tap into wave energy, the country’s Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology revealed during a media briefing Wednesday.

In a series of tweets in Arabic, local news agency WAF Oman quoted Khamis Mohammed Al Shamakhi, Undersecretary of the Ministry for Transport as saying that the government has no plans to invest in the project, but a memorandum of understanding signed with a consortium of companies to invest in the project has been extended for a period of one year.

He said a study on the economic feasibility of the project will be presented at the end of that period with primary investment objective being to generate wave power.

The plan for the sea bridge was mooted in 2010 and an Omani-Korean joint venture worked on the feasibility study, initial design and financial plan in 2015. However, the plan was put on hold due to the hefty price tag of 500 million Omani rials ($1.3 billion) until it was revied in 2022.

In a separate announcement this week, Norwegian wave energy company Havcraft signed an agreement with UK consultancy Translucidus to provide wave energy power systems for Oman.

Other key announcements made during the briefing were:

• The