SuperESCO Drives Oman’s Net Zero Ambitions: What This Means for Investors and Business Growth
Muscat: Following the launch of Oman’s first large-scale Super Energy Service Company (SuperESCO) in October 2025, the Ministry of Energy and Minerals is actively promoting the expansion of energy-efficiency service providers to support the Sultanate’s net-zero ambitions.
A SuperESCO is a specialized organization, typically backed by government or major energy stakeholders, that delivers large-scale energy-efficiency projects through performance-based financing models. Rather than requiring clients to pay upfront for upgrades, a SuperESCO finances and executes the improvements, recovering costs over time from guaranteed energy savings. This approach transforms energy efficiency from a mere technical upgrade into an investable service.
In October 2025, OQ Alternative Energy (OQAE), a subsidiary of Oman’s integrated energy company OQ, initiated the country’s first SuperESCO project. The project focuses on enhancing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions at the Muscat and Suhar facilities of OQ Refineries & Petroleum Industries (OQRPI). It involves equipment replacement, system optimization, operational improvements, and comprehensive performance verification. The initiative is expected to save 22.5 GWh of energy annually and cut approximately 9.4 kilotonnes of CO₂ emissions each year.
Significantly, the project requires no upfront capital from the industrial partner, as OQAE funds and manages the work, recovering its investment through verified energy savings. This financing model reduces financial barriers to efficiency upgrades for large energy consumers.
The Oman Net Zero Centre has identified energy efficiency as one of the quickest and most cost-effective methods to reduce energy consumption and accelerate national decarbonization. Consequently, the government is intensifying energy-efficiency efforts across public buildings, major energy users, and nationwide programs. The success of these initiatives depends not only on supportive policies and financing but also on a skilled workforce capable of identifying, assessing, and structuring efficiency opportunities. Industrial, commercial, and institutional sectors particularly rely on qualified energy auditors to convert technical potential into investment-ready proposals.
Central to the Ministry’s strategy to grow Oman’s ESCO market is the National Energy Efficiency Programme (Kafa’a), which aims to build professional capacity and certification in energy efficiency. The programme is delivered by the Sustainable Energy Research Centre (SERC) at Sultan Qaboos University, in partnership with the Oman Net Zero Centre and the Ministry of Labour.
The internationally recognized certification for Kafa’a is provided by the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE), a global professional society based in the United States dedicated to advancing energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainable resource management.
The Kafa’a programme consists of three integrated phases that guide participants from foundational knowledge to professional certification and market readiness. The first two phases, delivered over five weeks, focus on developing core and intermediate skills in energy efficiency and auditing. The third phase is a one-week intensive designed to prepare participants for the Certified Energy Auditor (CEA) credential issued by AEE.
Since its inception, about 56 participants have been selected to complete the full training pathway from a pool of over 300 registered candidates, reflecting strong market demand for ESCO and SuperESCO services in Oman.
Special Analysis by Omanet | Navigate Oman’s Market
The launch of Oman’s first large-scale SuperESCO and the strategic National Energy Efficiency Programme (Kafa’a) mark a transformative shift toward energy efficiency as a mainstream, investable service in Oman. For businesses, this reduces financial barriers to upgrading infrastructure, creating opportunities in industrial and commercial sectors to cut costs and emissions without upfront capital. Smart investors and entrepreneurs should focus on building expertise and partnerships in the evolving ESCO market, leveraging government-backed capacity-building and certification to capitalize on Oman’s accelerating decarbonization agenda.
