Leading construction and technical services company Parsons has won a contract to provide the front-end engineering design (Feed) for a giant 1,021-megawatt solar thermal park in Oman, said a report.

The project is being jointly developed by Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) and GlassPoint Solar at the Amal oilfield in south of the country, reported the Oman Observer.

As per the contract, Parsons will provide the basic engineering for the initial construction phases of the massive facility designed to harness solar energy to produce heavy and viscous oil from the Amal field.

Dubbed ‘Miraah’ (mirror in Arabic), the project centres on the installation of a large number of parabolic trough mirrors that will capture solar thermal energy to produce the massive quantities of steam necessary to heat the reservoir to stimulate the flow of heavy crude to production wells, said the report.

PDO plans to invest an estimated $600 million in the venture which will rank among the world’s largest solar thermal plants boasting a peak energy output of one gigawatt.

Last week, the petroleum giant along with solar technology partner GlassPoint had announced the ground-breaking on the landmark project, marking the formal start of construction work on the pioneering development.

First steam from the mammoth scheme, which will cover an area of nearly 3 sq km when fully rolled out, is anticipated in 2017.