Wakud

Wakud is Oman’s first biofuels producer. The SME was established in 2020 after 15 years of activity in collecting cooking oil from hotels, restaurants and catering firms. The company is a pioneer in the waste-to-energy industry in Oman and its biofuel plant located in Khazaen Economic City represents one of the largest and most technologically advanced biofuels facilities in the GCC region, with a production capacity of 500,000 litres of biodiesel per month.

Mission: Wakud’s mission is to build a biofuel ecosystem in the Middle East, starting with Oman, and to create awareness about biodiesel and waste management benefits, with the ultimate aim of supporting the country’s move towards a more circular economy while generating in-country value.

Segments targeted by the company for its refined products: transportation and logistics; marine (ships and construction equipment); power generation (aiming to replace generators fuelled by diesel); heavy machinery and upstream equipment (e.g., rigs)
Strategy: focusing primarily on corporate customers, working mainly as a refinery- leaving logistics, distribution and marketing companies to take the products to the customers; improving the quality of the products by developing R&D collaborations with academia

• Partnerships:
  In November 2022, Wakud inked an agreement with the leading domestic distributor of fuel and lubricant products, OOMCO, and with a producer of aluminium sheets in Sohar, OARC, for the supply of green biofuel blends. making OOMCO the first fuel marketer providing biofuel in the Omani market while allowing OARC to lower the company’s direct emission by 4/5% (equal to 134 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year saved)
• In December 2022, Omani oilfield service provider Alshawamikh received its first batch of biodiesel from Wakud, which will be used to reduce dependence on gas in generating electricity
• In March 2023, Wakud signed an agreement with ARA Petroleum to deliver biodiesel fuel which will power ARA’s electrical submersible pumps in water supply wells

In June 2023, Omani-British green energy venture X2E took a 60% stake in Wakud for USD 1.4 million, with an additional USD 3.6 million to be potentially invested for a tenfold throughput increase at the existing facility. Overall, X2E intends to invest approximately USD 120 million in the biodiesel capacity expansion planned by Wakud.

The facility’s expansion project is scheduled to be completed by the beginning of 2025, allowing the factory to produce sustainable aviation fuel and marine fuels by 2025, depending on raw material availability.