Oman and Qatar: The Gulf Solar Procurement Nobody Is Watching

Saudi Arabia and the UAE absorb most of the attention paid to Gulf renewables, and most of the bidders. That is exactly why Oman and Qatar deserve a look from companies already carrying the regional overhead of qualification and compliance: the incremental cost of bidding is modest, and the field is thinner.

Oman: Adam, Sinaw, and a pipeline behind them

Oman's single buyer is Nama Power and Water Procurement (Nama PWP), which runs qualification and tendering for independent power projects.

Nama PWP opened a qualification process covering approximately 1.5 GW of solar across two projects:

• Adam Solar IPP — 1 GW, reported as including a battery energy storage system, on over 20 million square metres of land, at an estimated project cost of around 746 million dollars.
• Sinaw Solar IPP — 500 MW, on over 5 million square metres, at an estimated cost of around 288 million dollars.

The statement-of-qualification deadline was reported as 27 July. pv magazine covered the tender when it opened.

Two things are worth drawing out. First, Adam carries storage, which places Oman alongside Dubai in treating batteries as part of the generation procurement rather than a separate exercise — the pattern we examined in DEWA Phase 7.

Second, and more strategically: Nama PWP has separately invited bids for technical consultancy covering four 1 GW solar IPPs. A buyer procuring advisory support for 4 GW is not running a one-off round. Read alongside reporting that Oman is targeting major solar, wind and desalination procurements, that indicates a programme — and programmes reward early relationships far more than single tenders do.

Oman has also been deliberate about staging its energy ambitions, an approach we have covered in Oman's green hydrogen strategy and more recently in Oman's Green AI agenda.

Qatar: Dukhan, and the transmission that goes with it

Qatar's utility is Kahramaa, the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation.

The headline development is the Dukhan solar project at 2 GW, scheduled for completion by 2029 and expected to double Qatar's solar generation capacity.

The detail worth noticing is what sits beside it. Kahramaa has contracted over 2.2 billion Qatari riyals of electricity transmission network work to support integrating Dukhan. That is a useful reminder of something this series keeps returning to: network scope is frequently procured separately from generation, and it can gate a project's schedule regardless of how quickly the panels go up. We set out who owns that review in who approves a grid connection in the Gulf.

Qatar also holds a piece of solar history relevant to anyone modelling Gulf tariffs. Its 800 MW tender in 2020 produced what was then a world-record solar price of 1.567 US cents per kWh — a benchmark that shaped expectations across the region for years afterwards, and a reminder of how aggressively Gulf solar has been bid. The structural reasons behind those numbers are in why solar is cheap in the Middle East.

Why the smaller markets can be the better opportunity

The arithmetic is straightforward for a company already active in the region.

Qualification, conformity and technical capability are largely regional overheads. Once a supplier has built a Gulf-capable product specification, a certification file and a track record, extending to another GCC market is incremental rather than foundational.

Meanwhile the competitive field thins considerably. The developers contesting Saudi Round 7 and Dubai Phase 7 are the largest international and regional IPPs, competing on cost of capital. That same intensity does not always follow into every Omani or Qatari round.

For a component supplier, the logic is similar but sharper: fewer competitors chasing the consortium's supply chain, and a better chance of a relationship that carries into the next round of a programme rather than ending with a single project.

The caution is equally straightforward. Smaller programmes mean fewer opportunities, longer gaps between them, and a heavier cost if you miss one. This is a portfolio argument for adding markets, not an argument for abandoning the large ones. The same argument applies to the two remaining GCC states, which we cover in Kuwait and Bahrain.

What to watch

• Qualification outcomes on Adam and Sinaw, naming who is in the field.
• Whether Oman's 4 GW consultancy scope converts into tendered projects and on what timetable.
• Storage scope on future Omani rounds, following Adam.
• Dukhan's construction and grid milestones against the 2029 completion date.

A note on sourcing

Arcnex has not seen Nama PWP or Kahramaa tender documentation. Capacities, costs and dates above come from the buyers' announcements as carried by established trade and regional outlets. Estimated project costs in particular are reported figures rather than contracted values, and should be treated as indicative. The tender documents are the authority.

Cover the whole Gulf, not just the headlines

Arcnex reports procurement across the GCC — including the markets that get less attention and less competition.

• Follow our Middle East energy coverage for tenders and awards across the region.
• Explore the policy and markets desk for the structures behind them.
• Subscribe to The Energy Edit — free, independent reporting, start here.

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