PDO outlines stiff 2030 emissions targets

Beyond a flashy pledge of long-term carbon-neutrality lie some meaningful medium-term goals that could substantially speed up Muscat’s lagging decarbonisation efforts

Scepticism was the reaction when state-controlled Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the sultanate’s main oil producer, unveiled plans in early September to become carbon-neutral by 2050. Like the government’s ‘goal’ to cut historic economic dependence on hydrocarbons by more than three-quarters within two decades, PDO’s superficially eye-catching aim essentially rebrands physical inevitability as environmental virtue. The country’s reserves/production ratio stood at a mere 15.4 years at end-2020, according to BP’s latest Annual Statistical Review. Barring the improbable discovery of a long-elusive elephant, Oman will have little crude left to pump by mid-century. PDO’s task since the early 2