Dubai: Saudi Arabia signed deals with Oman valued at $30 billion, state media said on Tuesday, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began a tour of Gulf Arab countries, including former rival Qatar.
Saudi and Omani companies “signed 13 memoranda of understanding worth $30 billion”, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
The MoUs between the two countries, which seek to diversify their economies away from oil, range from cooperation in the energy and tourism sectors to finance and technology.
Crown Prince Mohammed arrived in Muscat on Monday night, the first stop in a regional tour ahead a Gulf Arab summit in mid-December.
According to SPA, he will also visit the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar.
Prince Mohammed’s trip to Doha will mark the first visit since Saudi Arabia and Qatar severed ties four years ago.
The Omani group Okio signed three MoUs, one in petrochemicals and renewable energy, the other in green hydrogen (with the Saudi company ACWA Power and Abder Product Co.), the second in oil storage with Aramco and the third with Sabic for developing Al-Doqom petrochemical venture.
Another MoU was signed by the Omani group Asyad, and the Saudi maritime company and a fifth one involved Minerals Development Oman (MDO) and the Saudi Arabian Mining Company.
Moreover, the Omani group Omran inked a memo for investment in tourism with the Saudi Dar Arkan company.
OMNA also noted that the rest of the inked memos covered fish farming and stocks..
Al Arabiya said the summit of Gulf Arab leaders would be held in the Saudi capital Riyadh in mid-December.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE have engaged with long-time foe Iran in a bid to contain regional tensions as indirect talks between Washington and Tehran to revive the nuclear pact drag.
In the latest round of talks in Vienna last week, Western powers questioned Iran’s determination to salvage the 2015 agreement, which Gulf states saw as flawed for not addressing Tehran’s missiles programme and network of regional proxies.
Then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the pact in 2018 and reimposed US sanctions, prompting Iran to begin violating nuclear restrictions starting in 2019. Tehran denies seeking nuclear weapons.
