Middle East Infrastructure

Port of Salalah cuts energy used per container by 12.7 per cent in a year of sharply rising volumes

By Staff Writer  |  17 August 2026

The terminal handled 4.3 million TEU in 2025, up 31 per cent, while energy intensity fell to 9.05 kilowatt hours per TEU, and the operator has set out electrification, on-site solar and shore power as the next phase of a 2040 net-zero operational target.

Port of Salalah cut the energy used for each unit of container traffic by 12.7 per cent in 2025, a year in which its volumes rose faster than at almost any terminal of comparable scale. The port handled 4.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units, an increase of 31 per cent on the previous year, while general cargo rose 17 per cent to 26.4 million tonnes. Energy intensity fell to 9.05 kilowatt hours per TEU from 10.37 a year earlier, according to the port's Sustainability Report 2025.

Total electricity consumption still rose, by 11.1 per cent to 47.24 million kilowatt hours, as terminal capacity, equipment use and operating hours expanded. The efficiency claim rests on throughput growing faster than power demand, not on the port using less power. The port also reports that biodiesel supplied 4.28 million litres, or 23.2 per cent, of its liquid fuel consumption, and that 70 per cent of terminal lighting has been converted to LED.

The year's operational record sits alongside an external measure. The terminal was ranked third worldwide in the Container Port Performance Index 2025, the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence ranking built on the time container vessels spend in port.

We treat sustainability as an enabler, not merely as a report at the end of the year

Abdul Fattah al Amri, Sustainability Manager at Port of Salalah

Al Amri presented the figures at the Sustainability Forum 2026, organised by the Muscat Stock Exchange and hosted by the port on 13 August. He said the port used the exchange's 2024 voluntary reporting phase to test its measurement and disclosure processes before reporting became compulsory. Listed companies in Oman now report against 30 environmental, social and governance metrics under the exchange's framework.

What the next phase puts in the market

The port has set a net-zero operational target for 2040 and says it aims to cut absolute emissions by 70 per cent over the 2020 to 2030 period without relying on carbon offsets. The stated next phase is a works programme: electrifying cargo-handling equipment, increasing renewable electricity, developing on-site solar generation, improving water management and preparing shore-power infrastructure for vessels at berth.

Each of those lines is a future procurement. Terminal equipment electrification, solar arrays on port land and shore-power connections at berth are packages that will need designers, cabling and switchgear contractors, and marine-side installation.

One caution belongs beside the headline number. Growth pushed the port's combined Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions up 4.6 per cent in 2025, to 52.69 million kilogrammes of carbon dioxide from 50.36 million a year earlier, and the report does not set the 2020 baseline for the 70 per cent interim goal beside the latest figures. Efficiency per container is improving; total emissions are still rising with volume.

Reading it from the contracting side

For contractors and consultants working the Gulf ports market, the useful signal is not the ranking but the sequencing. A terminal that has just posted a record year, published a measured energy baseline and named its delivery categories is a terminal preparing to buy. Shore power in particular is a civils and high-voltage package with few regional precedents, and an operator that says it is preparing that infrastructure is flagging design work before construction tenders.

The test of the 2025 figures will be whether the efficiency gain converts into an absolute reduction while volumes keep growing. The next set of numbers will show whether electrification has started to bend the curve.