High Beams in Oman. How China and Green Energy Have Opened a New Economic Corridor in the Arabian Peninsula

This working paper explores the new frontiers of green capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula by taking Ibri II as a case study. Ibri II is a solar plant inaugurated in Oman in 2022 with seed funding provided by China. Its establishment has facilitated the development of a land corridor that links Saudi Arabia to Oman through a new highway, connecting Red Sea and Indian Ocean trade routes and reshaping the economic geography of the Arabian Peninsula. Ibri II and the Saudi-Omani corridor highlight the convergence of three main trends: (i) the growing appeal of green energy as a profitable destination for investment, (ii) China’s leadership in this sector as a vehicle to expand its footprint in the Arabian Peninsula, and (iii) the push towards economic diversification that Gulf countries have outlined over the past decade – in the case of Oman, in its Vision 2040. By studying Ibri II, I claim that while green energy developments carve alternative economic geographies untethered from available fossil fuel reserves, they also reinforce rather than replace previous networks of trade and production connected to the oil industry.