OMAN-INDIA TIES, ACROSS SEA AND SPACE

In addition, L&T, Jindal, EPIL, Shapoorji Pallonji, Shriram, Aditya Birla Group, Nagarjuna Construction Company, Simplex and KEC International are some of the well-known Indian companies which have been executing various projects in Oman. Indian firms have gained a reputation for excellence in sectors like construction and engineering, waste management, logistics, manufacturing, finance and capital, software solutions, communications and oil and gas.

Indian financial institutions such as State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, HDFC Ltd and ICICI Securities operate in Oman. Public sector undertakings such as Air India, Air India Express, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), New India Assurance Co., Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd. (TCIL), Engineers India Ltd. (EIL), Engineering Projects India Limited (EPIL), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and National Building Construction Company (NBCC) have presence in Oman.

Joint investments Oman-India Joint Investment Fund (OIJIF) is a 50-50 Joint Venture between State Bank of India and State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) of Oman, the main sovereign wealth fund of Oman. It was set up in July 2010 as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to invest in India. OIJIF commenced its operations in 2011 with initial seed capital of US$ 100 million which was fully invested across seven Indian companies from diversified sectors (i.e. Solar Industries, ING Vysya Bank, HBL Power Systems, Indus Teqsite, GSP Crop Science, NCDEX and SSIPL).

OIJIF has launched Fund II in 2017 with a target corpus of US$ 300 million and has announced first closure at US$ 220 million. The Tranche II capital raised has so far been invested across five companies viz. Divgi TorqTransfer Systems (automotive industry), Annapurna Finance Pvt. Ltd. (microfinance), Stanley Lifestyles (luxury furniture space) and PNB Metlife (life insurance) and most recently (November 2019) in Capital Small Finance Bank in Punjab with an investment of RO 4.5 million (Rs. 84 crores).

Oman Oil Company, an Omani public sector company, has 26% stake in Bharat Oman Refineries Limited (BORL) which owns and operates Bina Refinery, India’s largest oil refinery.

With its production unit in Sur, Oman India Fertilizer Company (OMIFCO) is a US$ 969 million joint venture between Oman Oil Company (50% stake) and IFFCO (25% stake) and KRIBHCO (25% stake) of India. The plant has the capacity to produce 1,750 tonnes a day of anhydrous ammonia from two ammonia plants and 2,530 tonnes a day of granular urea from two urea plants.

Government of India had a long-term Urea Off Take Agreement (UOTA) with OMIFCO to lift its entire production of urea. The Omani Ministry of 182