Oman has made significant strides towards becoming a clean industrial hub due to its establishment of the ENG Engineering Contract with Larsen and Toubro (L&T). This award signifies the completion of the first part of L&T’s contract to provide maintenance services and compliance reports for the Meranti Green Steel–Green Iron Facility (GF) in the Duqm Special Economic Zone (SES) in Oman, which is set to be finished by June 30, 2026. L&T will continue to participate in key global low-carbon steel projects moving forward, assisting in the transition of Oman’s energy system from the conceptual to physical stage and enabling sustainable industrial development as part of a low-carbon economy.
Meranti Green Steel made an official announcement of the project on August 11, 2025. It will establish a green iron production plant at the Duqm Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The plant will be an environmentally friendly production facility using the direct reduced iron (DRI) and hot briquetted iron (HBI) processes for producing DRI and HBI with a lower emissions rating. The facility will have an initial annual production capacity of 2.5 million metric tonnes. By the end of 2026, Meranti plans to complete the final investment decision, begin construction, and start commissioning the facility, aiming to finish the entire project by mid-2029.
The Minerals & Metals business of L&T will play a central role in establishing the technical backbone of an industrial project. This business unit will provide detailed engineering design, plant configuration, process integration, execution strategy, cost estimates, and implementation scheduling. Timely completion of large industrial projects relies heavily on successful FEED execution, which finalises all planning activities before construction begins. When a large industrial project progresses smoothly from concept to construction, it prevents any additional costs or delays from occurring before construction begins.
FEED represents a critical function of the overall delivery process of large-scale industrial projects. In an industry/sector where significant delays and cost overruns can occur quickly after the start of construction, the FEED stage represents the time when a company’s objectives become constructible.
By aligning with an overarching decarbonisation strategy, the Oman project is very compelling in a number of ways. Meranti indicated that the initial operating mix for the facility would be a combination of natural gas and green hydrogen, with an increase in green hydrogen usage planned over time. Meranti also emphasized Duqm’s strategic benefits — including the access to a port, existing industrial infrastructure, and the role Duqm plays as a logistics bridge between Europe and Asia. With the global steel industry being pressured to decarbonize, Oman is betting on green molecules and innovative engineering to create a new industrial story that will be competitive.
Now that L&T is engaged, the Oman Duqm project has gone from a vision to developing the execution resource plan, which represents a significant advancement in the quest for producing cleaner steel.
