The floods of March 2007
Torrential rain flooded Oman a week ago between 18th-19th March. Gulf News published photos of numerous rental 4x4s that had been swept into a wadi at Darsait. Somewhere I've read that the ROP ticketed cars of people who had got out to look, for being in a no-waiting zone.
The paper reported that 44.6mm rain fell on Muscat while Jabal Al Shams received its maximum rainfall of 134mm in the overnight downpour. The Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources reported that over 39 million cubic metres of water had accumulated in the country's recharge dams. These dams are intended not only to enhance the process of recharge to groundwater after rainfall, but also to prevent or lessen damage to life and property downstream.
Four Omanis died when they were swept away by the flood waters.
Amjad's blog has lots of photos of the rain and the flooding in and around Muscat, showing cars almost completely submerged at Al Khuwair roundabout. He links to both Oman Serv and English Sabla forums as the source of the photos. And he also took his own photos, when the driver decided to go no further than Ghubra roundabout and turned back home.
From other sources, including images forwarded from alfaiha.net, I've received photos of the water roaring down the wadi at Nizwa and Wadi Samail in the Interior. I'm reproducing some of these here to show the massive impact that such flows have. The recharge dams are sited near the coast. Therefore the communities of Nizwa, Fanja and Samail felt the full force of the floods.
I have yet to see an estimate of the cost of the damage. There is considerable speculation that insurance companies will have to pay out a tidy amount, but what about infrastructure? How many roads were destroyed? Bridges, culverts, water supplies, telephone masts, agriculture? And so on.
The paper reported that 44.6mm rain fell on Muscat while Jabal Al Shams received its maximum rainfall of 134mm in the overnight downpour. The Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources reported that over 39 million cubic metres of water had accumulated in the country's recharge dams. These dams are intended not only to enhance the process of recharge to groundwater after rainfall, but also to prevent or lessen damage to life and property downstream.
Four Omanis died when they were swept away by the flood waters.
Amjad's blog has lots of photos of the rain and the flooding in and around Muscat, showing cars almost completely submerged at Al Khuwair roundabout. He links to both Oman Serv and English Sabla forums as the source of the photos. And he also took his own photos, when the driver decided to go no further than Ghubra roundabout and turned back home.
From other sources, including images forwarded from alfaiha.net, I've received photos of the water roaring down the wadi at Nizwa and Wadi Samail in the Interior. I'm reproducing some of these here to show the massive impact that such flows have. The recharge dams are sited near the coast. Therefore the communities of Nizwa, Fanja and Samail felt the full force of the floods.
I have yet to see an estimate of the cost of the damage. There is considerable speculation that insurance companies will have to pay out a tidy amount, but what about infrastructure? How many roads were destroyed? Bridges, culverts, water supplies, telephone masts, agriculture? And so on.
TRA bans Internet Cafe VoIP
The Times of Oman has reported today that Oman's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has banned internet telephony from Internet cafes.
Punishment could mean up to two years in prison, and/or fines of RO5,000 to RO50,000 ($13,000 to $130,000 at today's rates).
The article cites a statement from the TRA which says that the telecom services are not licensed in accordance with the requirements of Royal Decree No. 20/2004, by which only Omantel may award licenses, and in violation of the Telecommunications Regulatory Act issued by Royal Decree No. 30/2002 article (20).
This is either a move to protect Omantel, the only supplier of fixed landlines and Internet in Oman, and the mobile companies Oman Mobile and Nawras, as suggested by Ameinfo, or, which I suspect is equally as likely, a knee-jerk administrative reaction to somebody irked by the bypassing of rules.
This decision will hit the lowest-paid expat workers from the sub-continent most, who use the technology to stay in touch with home and loved ones. Not that better-heeled people wouldn't want to use it too.
I use VoIP all the time. I have a Skype account, invaluable for global communication, and I use an even cheaper VoIP alternative for making most of my UK calls. I can call US landlines for free. That's what we call competition.
I'm not aware that Skype had to get a license to operate in the UK.
You can find portable Skype phones on the market, which enable you to make calls from anywhere where you can get a wireless Internet connection. Wi-fi enabled PDA's also port the Skype technology.
Goodness me, whatever would the TRA do if it found an international executive making a Skype call on his PDA from the comfort of the Business Centre in the Hyatt (which I assume is wi-fi enabled). I rather think that the international executive would be considerably more vociferous in his complaints than a poor labourer from Bangladesh.
Incidentally, if you click the Call Me! icon which I display on the Contact page of this website from Oman, you could well be breaking the law. It goes through to my Skype number.
And isn't this another move which inhibits the progression to Digital Oman?
Punishment could mean up to two years in prison, and/or fines of RO5,000 to RO50,000 ($13,000 to $130,000 at today's rates).
The article cites a statement from the TRA which says that the telecom services are not licensed in accordance with the requirements of Royal Decree No. 20/2004, by which only Omantel may award licenses, and in violation of the Telecommunications Regulatory Act issued by Royal Decree No. 30/2002 article (20).
This is either a move to protect Omantel, the only supplier of fixed landlines and Internet in Oman, and the mobile companies Oman Mobile and Nawras, as suggested by Ameinfo, or, which I suspect is equally as likely, a knee-jerk administrative reaction to somebody irked by the bypassing of rules.
This decision will hit the lowest-paid expat workers from the sub-continent most, who use the technology to stay in touch with home and loved ones. Not that better-heeled people wouldn't want to use it too.
I use VoIP all the time. I have a Skype account, invaluable for global communication, and I use an even cheaper VoIP alternative for making most of my UK calls. I can call US landlines for free. That's what we call competition.
I'm not aware that Skype had to get a license to operate in the UK.
You can find portable Skype phones on the market, which enable you to make calls from anywhere where you can get a wireless Internet connection. Wi-fi enabled PDA's also port the Skype technology.
Goodness me, whatever would the TRA do if it found an international executive making a Skype call on his PDA from the comfort of the Business Centre in the Hyatt (which I assume is wi-fi enabled). I rather think that the international executive would be considerably more vociferous in his complaints than a poor labourer from Bangladesh.
Incidentally, if you click the Call Me! icon which I display on the Contact page of this website from Oman, you could well be breaking the law. It goes through to my Skype number.
And isn't this another move which inhibits the progression to Digital Oman?
Major IT firm to move from Oman to India
Bahwan CyberTek is moving its HQ to Chennai in India, according to the Khaleej Times.
The company, established in 1999 and part of the Bahwan Group in Oman, has expanded significantly since then, offering both onsite and offshore services.
It won a five-year contract to manage Gulf Air's call centre at KOM in 2003-4. It has secured a $500 million contract to run 4th party logistics from PDO in a joint venture with Exel. It has implemented over 50 Oracle e-Business Suites.
The company claims to have several government contracts to offer e-business services nationally, including the $12 million worth of Sanad Citizen Services offered at 150 points across the country.
It won the Corporate Gold Award in Oman's annual web award contest.
And it's moving to India. What can we infer from that? The biggest cost in supplying electronic and IT services is likely to be in skilled labour. The company must feel that there will be fewer constraints in operating from India, where presumably most of the skilled labour is, than from Muscat.
How does this tie in with implementing and upgrading IT skills in Oman, and Omanisation? If headquartered in India, the company is free to hire and fire Indians. Naturally, it could bring Omanis over for training, but its services would be unhindered by labour and visa requirements in Oman.
Would Bahwan CyberTek ever consider moving back to Muscat should the pool of IT-qualified Omanis increase? Quite possibly not if the aim of the company is to diversify and expand its work internationally. It would need access to a very substantial workforce of qualified staff.
Compare this with another story from the Khaleej Times published the same day, in which the President of Oman's State Audit Institution (SAI), Sayyid Abdullah bin Hamed Al Busaidi, appealed for auditing institutions to keep abreast with the latest developments in IT.
I think I would like to ask how successful IT training has been in Oman. What are the forecasts for not just IT literacy but also in-depth skilled practioners who could create and implement solutions such as those which Bahwan CyberTek undertakes? How does Oman's national IT policy propose to keep local companies in country to employ local staff rather than having to watch them go overseas?
The company, established in 1999 and part of the Bahwan Group in Oman, has expanded significantly since then, offering both onsite and offshore services.
It won a five-year contract to manage Gulf Air's call centre at KOM in 2003-4. It has secured a $500 million contract to run 4th party logistics from PDO in a joint venture with Exel. It has implemented over 50 Oracle e-Business Suites.
The company claims to have several government contracts to offer e-business services nationally, including the $12 million worth of Sanad Citizen Services offered at 150 points across the country.
It won the Corporate Gold Award in Oman's annual web award contest.
And it's moving to India. What can we infer from that? The biggest cost in supplying electronic and IT services is likely to be in skilled labour. The company must feel that there will be fewer constraints in operating from India, where presumably most of the skilled labour is, than from Muscat.
How does this tie in with implementing and upgrading IT skills in Oman, and Omanisation? If headquartered in India, the company is free to hire and fire Indians. Naturally, it could bring Omanis over for training, but its services would be unhindered by labour and visa requirements in Oman.
Would Bahwan CyberTek ever consider moving back to Muscat should the pool of IT-qualified Omanis increase? Quite possibly not if the aim of the company is to diversify and expand its work internationally. It would need access to a very substantial workforce of qualified staff.
Compare this with another story from the Khaleej Times published the same day, in which the President of Oman's State Audit Institution (SAI), Sayyid Abdullah bin Hamed Al Busaidi, appealed for auditing institutions to keep abreast with the latest developments in IT.
I think I would like to ask how successful IT training has been in Oman. What are the forecasts for not just IT literacy but also in-depth skilled practioners who could create and implement solutions such as those which Bahwan CyberTek undertakes? How does Oman's national IT policy propose to keep local companies in country to employ local staff rather than having to watch them go overseas?
Embassies and expatriate schools in Oman
Gulf News has reported that the Ministry of Education in Oman has decreed that expatriate schools are now to be run by elected boards of parent governors. According to the newspaper report, foreign embassies and diplomatic personnel may have no say in the running of such schools.
This took me back to 1996 when the newly incumbent American ambassador in Muscat objected to the running of the American-British Academy, then the only international school in Oman, and insisted on changes to the senior management of the school and the educational syllabus so that it would be more in keeping with United States educational policy and practice. The US embassy was then the sponsor of ABA.
There was heated exchange, at which I was present, and spoke. A significant contingent of parents, who were predominantly American, and who had all school fees mostly paid on their behalf by their companies, called for much greater investment in the school through a very substantial hike in the fees.
As the ABA was an international school accommodating over 50 nationalities of children, many of whom came from families who were obliged to fork out for their own fees, there seemed a real danger that the price of education for these expatriates would become out of reach. I was one such parent.
ABA had been through an unsettled period, it is true, and I cannot speak for the staff, but I had been quite happy with the education that my two children had been receiving there.
Not so the American Embassy. The embassy withdrew its support and sponsorship and invested(?) or at least sponsored instead The American International School in Muscat, usually known as TAISM.
The British Embassy took over sponsorship of ABA.
There is always a problem for transient communities obtaining permanent structures to educate their children when this requires liaising with local landlords for leasing land and premises. So I suppose that embassy sponsorship can be valuable when it comes to forming a permanent relationship with the landowner on whose land the school exists.
Which makes me wonder whether the edict banning diplomatic involvement in the running of the school extends to sponsorship as well. If, as was hinted at in the newspaper article in a comment by the Pakistan Embassy's Head of Chancery, the ruling refers to the actual running of the school, rather than sponsorship, then there may be no great risk to the provision of education for expatriate children.
It's actually the Indian community which might face a bit of a problem, since three Indian schools are privately owned and run by businessmen.
Perhaps someone could enlighten us, please.
This took me back to 1996 when the newly incumbent American ambassador in Muscat objected to the running of the American-British Academy, then the only international school in Oman, and insisted on changes to the senior management of the school and the educational syllabus so that it would be more in keeping with United States educational policy and practice. The US embassy was then the sponsor of ABA.
There was heated exchange, at which I was present, and spoke. A significant contingent of parents, who were predominantly American, and who had all school fees mostly paid on their behalf by their companies, called for much greater investment in the school through a very substantial hike in the fees.
As the ABA was an international school accommodating over 50 nationalities of children, many of whom came from families who were obliged to fork out for their own fees, there seemed a real danger that the price of education for these expatriates would become out of reach. I was one such parent.
ABA had been through an unsettled period, it is true, and I cannot speak for the staff, but I had been quite happy with the education that my two children had been receiving there.
Not so the American Embassy. The embassy withdrew its support and sponsorship and invested(?) or at least sponsored instead The American International School in Muscat, usually known as TAISM.
The British Embassy took over sponsorship of ABA.
There is always a problem for transient communities obtaining permanent structures to educate their children when this requires liaising with local landlords for leasing land and premises. So I suppose that embassy sponsorship can be valuable when it comes to forming a permanent relationship with the landowner on whose land the school exists.
Which makes me wonder whether the edict banning diplomatic involvement in the running of the school extends to sponsorship as well. If, as was hinted at in the newspaper article in a comment by the Pakistan Embassy's Head of Chancery, the ruling refers to the actual running of the school, rather than sponsorship, then there may be no great risk to the provision of education for expatriate children.
It's actually the Indian community which might face a bit of a problem, since three Indian schools are privately owned and run by businessmen.
Perhaps someone could enlighten us, please.
Current government policy on oil and gas
Questions were raised about Oman's oil production in April 2004 following publication of an article in the New York Times which claimed that Shell had mistakenly increased proven oil reserves in 2000, 'resulting in a 40 pct overstatement' and had been overly optimistic about Oman's oil reserves for years. Also reported in Financial Times of 8th April 2004.
Shell, which owns 34 pct of Petroleum Development Oman, counter claimed that it had presented revised figures for proved reserves in Oman to investors in February 2004, and is continuing to invest substantially in advanced improved and enhanced techniques of oil recovery. In fact, EOR techniques developed in Oman could actually become an export technology.
Perhaps it's a result of a shake-up with Shell that Oman has chosen to diversify exploration and production. Although PDO is still responsible for 85 pct of production, 15 other international oil companies are now working in the country. The government is very keen to continue aggressive marketing with overseas oil companies in a bid to find more hydrocarbon fields.
I was interested therefore to read remarks made by Nasser bin Khamis Al Jashmi, undersecretary at the Ministry of Oil and Gas and chairman of Oman Refinery Company at the fourth Middle East Artificial Lift Forum (MEALF) which was held at the Shangri-La's Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa earlier this month. The interview was originally published in Middle East Economic Survey and was republished in the Khaleej Times.
Mr al Jashmi was keen to emphasize to the attendees that Oman wished to promote further development of lifting technology in the oil industry to raise output and lower costs. Currently, 90pct of Oman's oil is lifted artificially.
Gas is not oil, but it is geologically associated. A gas-field production engineer told me informally back in January 2004 that Oman was selling forward gas supplies which hadn't been proved. I mentioned this to one or two people in business in Muscat, who were sceptical.
Oman is anxious to diversify sources of gas imports to provide energy supplies for large projects. Oman is to import 200 million cubic feet daily of gas from Qatar under the Dolphin project from 2008 and has conferred with Iran over potential pipeline imports. There's a bit of a hiccup about prospects of supply from Qatar.
So it is very notable that His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said spoke at a meeting of walis and shaikhs while on his annual Meet-the-People tour about the availability of gas as an energy source for water desalination. The Times of Oman reported His Majesty as saying:' “Thank God, the Sultanate has sufficient gas, but not in sufficient quantities to meet such requirements.”'
He went on to explain to citizens that government policy was to develop parallel tracks with regards to gas sources. For the time being, Oman wants to hang on to its own gas reserves which can be used for export and to create revenue, and to use imported gas for powering its local industries. He looked forward to the time when the cost of using solar power would be low enough to use effectively for large-scale desalination.
I think he'll have to wait a while yet.
Shell, which owns 34 pct of Petroleum Development Oman, counter claimed that it had presented revised figures for proved reserves in Oman to investors in February 2004, and is continuing to invest substantially in advanced improved and enhanced techniques of oil recovery. In fact, EOR techniques developed in Oman could actually become an export technology.
Perhaps it's a result of a shake-up with Shell that Oman has chosen to diversify exploration and production. Although PDO is still responsible for 85 pct of production, 15 other international oil companies are now working in the country. The government is very keen to continue aggressive marketing with overseas oil companies in a bid to find more hydrocarbon fields.
I was interested therefore to read remarks made by Nasser bin Khamis Al Jashmi, undersecretary at the Ministry of Oil and Gas and chairman of Oman Refinery Company at the fourth Middle East Artificial Lift Forum (MEALF) which was held at the Shangri-La's Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa earlier this month. The interview was originally published in Middle East Economic Survey and was republished in the Khaleej Times.
Mr al Jashmi was keen to emphasize to the attendees that Oman wished to promote further development of lifting technology in the oil industry to raise output and lower costs. Currently, 90pct of Oman's oil is lifted artificially.
Gas is not oil, but it is geologically associated. A gas-field production engineer told me informally back in January 2004 that Oman was selling forward gas supplies which hadn't been proved. I mentioned this to one or two people in business in Muscat, who were sceptical.
Oman is anxious to diversify sources of gas imports to provide energy supplies for large projects. Oman is to import 200 million cubic feet daily of gas from Qatar under the Dolphin project from 2008 and has conferred with Iran over potential pipeline imports. There's a bit of a hiccup about prospects of supply from Qatar.
Qatari officials have indicated that new export projects will only be approved when gas is sold at around four dollars per million BTU units, well above the 1.30 dollars per million BTU levels of sales and purchases in the first phase of the Dolphin project. Khaleej Times.Mr al Jashmi said that average gas demand in Oman was growing at 7 per cent annually. The government has been obliged to reject new downstream industries, he added, because there wasn't enough gas to supply energy needs in the mid-term.
So it is very notable that His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said spoke at a meeting of walis and shaikhs while on his annual Meet-the-People tour about the availability of gas as an energy source for water desalination. The Times of Oman reported His Majesty as saying:' “Thank God, the Sultanate has sufficient gas, but not in sufficient quantities to meet such requirements.”'
He went on to explain to citizens that government policy was to develop parallel tracks with regards to gas sources. For the time being, Oman wants to hang on to its own gas reserves which can be used for export and to create revenue, and to use imported gas for powering its local industries. He looked forward to the time when the cost of using solar power would be low enough to use effectively for large-scale desalination.
I think he'll have to wait a while yet.