Oman Commodity Trading Firm Takes Another Shot at LNG Expansion
(Bloomberg) -- Oman’s state-owned commodities trading firm plans to grow its liquefied natural gas business from a fraction of its portfolio to one of its biggest fuels through domestic and international deals.
“LNG has to become one of our biggest products,” OQ Trading Chief Executive Wail Al Jamali said in an interview. “It’s the fuel of the future.”
Oman has its own LNG production facilities run by the state and international companies, and this is not the first time Dubai-based OQT has looked to expand its trading of the super-chilled fuel. After a previous effort a few years ago that didn’t work out, the firm decided to redefine its trading team, Al Jamali said.
“We’re starting with a new team with new ideas,” he said. “It’s not our first stint in LNG but it’s the one that I’m personally leading.”
The firm traded 2 million tons of LNG last year. OQT has an agreement with Oman LNG to receive 750,000 tons a year for four years starting in 2026 and another for 600,000 tons a year from Mexico’s Amigo LNG, if the project comes to fruition. Oman plans to expand its LNG production with a fourth train by 2029, which may be another source of supply.
“Once we’re active with Oman LNG it makes it easier to start taking a bit more risk and putting some positions on and building a portfolio,” said Al Jamali. “We start local and then go global.”
OQT wants its enlarged LNG business to be on a par with its oil products and crude businesses, which together accounted for 96% of its volumes in 2024.
Aside from LNG, OQT is sizing up downstream oil acquisition targets that use distillate and gasoline, Al Jamali said. The firm took a stake in African fuel retailer Hass Petroleum in 2017, and would like to make a similar-but-larger investment using its own balance sheet and possibly in partnership with parent company OQ.
“We need a short where I can decide if I tender out to the market or I give some of it to my own trading entity,” said Al Jamali. “The size needs to be substantial. We are now trading 55 million tons so it needs to be something that moves the needle for us.”
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
