On Oman airs on CNN International on Saturday 10th February 2024 at 09:45 GST
In a special half-hour show On Oman, CNN’s Eleni Giokos travels to Oman to rediscover the country’s historical trading significance and explore how its diverse landscapes and natural resources shape its present role as a hub for shipping and commerce.
Nestled in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula, Oman has a storied past as a crossroad for trade. Today, the country is exploring new ways to diversify the economy with a push to reduce its carbon footprint and reach net zero. Talal Hasan is the Founder and CEO of 44.01, a technology start-up that eliminates CO2 by turning it into rock. He explains, “What’s great about our process is what we are doing is effectively oil and gas, but in reverse. So rather than taking hydrocarbons out of the ground, we’re putting carbon back in. And what that means is we need the same people, the same equipment, the same infrastructure, the same partnerships.”
Hasan’s technology was developed in Oman, but he hopes to export it around the world, “Scalability is the most important piece. This rock comes to the surface on every continent on this planet. And what we want to do is take this technology. We want to share it with the rest of the world and scale it to the rest of the world.”
Oman is investing in renewable energies as it looks to use cleaner green hydrogen. The country seems to be ideally placed to capitalise on the renewable sources required for hydrogen production. Najla Al Jamali, CEO of OQ Alternative Energies talks about how Oman’s landscape helps the process, “It’s this complementarity between the solar and wind. There are not many points around the world where you can see both solar and wind in a way in unison, that work in unison so that you have your solar peaks during the day, and then on the flanks you have the wind. It picks up at the evening and then stays up all throughout the evening into the early hours of the morning.”
The nationwide plan to produce green hydrogen extends to Oman’s busiest port Salalah. With strategic access to the Arabian Sea coupled with an expansive free-zone, Salalah holds many advantages. Salalah Port Board Member Abdulmalik Al Balushi speaks about the projects, “Our ports are located ideally to become prime logistic hubs for hydrogen. We’ve got the first project coming up in the Salalah free zone, Salalah H2 with a production capacity of 340,000 tonnes of green ammonia. We are the first movers in this region on that front.”
Oman’s geography and climate have historically presented challenges when it comes to agriculture. Giokos visits three enterprising brothers who have created a company YUZU which brings organic farming to the desert. One brother, Adam Al Said, talks about their tomato crop and how they grow in unfavourable conditions, “We are in the desert, right? And it’s a hot environment, our soil is a bit sandy. So, the whole idea is you need to create the conditions for success. Which means having amazing soil, so raising the organic matter and then mostly working with nature. So basically, working with pests, trying to understand the local patterns.”
His brother Fahar Al Said explains how he adapted skills from a previous job to desert farming, “I was actually working in a bank before I joined this farm, and one of the things I was doing was working on coding for algorithms in finance. And that is kind of where I honed my skills and thought agriculture is actually a sector that really needs this digitisation and is a sector that can seriously benefit from digitisation as well because the efficiency gains are so much more massive from that.”
Finally, Giokos meets Taimur Al-Said, the Managing Director at a travel company which specialises in uncovering Oman’s hidden gems. He discusses the growing the tourism sector, “There’s so much untouched areas in Oman, and to be able to just go in and explore. And I think the most unique thing is the friendliness of the people, the hospitality of the people. The people are natural hosts. I find Omanis are very natural at hosting and making people feel welcome. And wanting to show the country.”
On Oman airs on CNN International on Saturday 10th February 2024 at 09:45 GST
The show also airs at the following times:
Saturday 10th February 2024 at 15:30 GST and 21:30 GST
Sunday 11th February 2024 at 08:00 GST
Monday 12th February 2024 at 02:30 GST