OMAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Abdulredha Al Lawati, Zainab Al Lawati, Daniyal Khalid and Aoun Al Zadjali, ALC Lawyers & Counsel
Oman’s continued investment in renewable energy, hydrogen, major infrastructure and other strategic projects is also creating increasingly sophisticated risk profiles. These projects involve multiple contrac- tors, insurers, and contractual layers, making liability allocation and interaction between different insurance policies particularly important. These developments are influencing our advisory and disputes practice considerably. Clients increasingly require legal input at the policy-review and risk-allo- cation stage rather than only after a loss occurs. When disputes arise, greater attention is being placed on causation, exclusions, aggregation, policy limits and the interaction between contractual liability and insur- ance coverage. As the market develops, we expect preventative coverage advice and early legal involve- ment to become increasingly important. 8.2 Impact of ESG on Underwriting and Insurance Litigation ESG considerations are increasingly relevant to under- writing in Oman as sustainability reporting develops and investment continues in renewable energy, green hydrogen and major infrastructure. Environmental exposures may include climate events, pollution and project risks, while governance issues may affect D&O or professional-liability exposure. There is not yet a developed body of Omani insurance litigation treating ESG as a distinct coverage category. Disputes are more likely to arise through established principles concerning disclosure, causation, exclu- sions, policy interpretation and regulatory compli- ance. The climate and ESG coverage position is dis- cussed more fully in 4.7 ESG and Climate-Related Coverage , while the relevant reporting developments are addressed in 9.1 Regulatory Focus Areas and Supervisory Trends and 9.2. Forthcoming Reforms and Market Impact . 8.3 Data Protection Laws Oman’s Personal Data Protection framework increases the importance of cybersecurity controls, breach noti- fication and incident response. A significant breach may generate regulatory and third-party exposure potentially engaging cyber, professional-indemnity or other liability cover.
There is not yet developed Omani insurance case law on these issues. Coverage will therefore depend prin- cipally on the policy wording. See also 4.3 Cyber and Technology-Related Coverage Issues and 5.2 Shift-
ing Risk Landscape . 8.4 Data Centres
Oman’s growing data-centre sector creates exposure to property damage, equipment breakdown, cooling or power failure, cyber-incidents and business inter- ruption. There is not yet developed Omani insurance litigation specific to data centres. Coverage will therefore depend on the relevant phys- ical-damage, equipment-breakdown, business-inter- ruption, dependent-service, limit and aggregation pro- visions, together with the insured’s redundancy and disaster-recovery arrangements. 8.5 Social Media Risk Social-media addiction and related mental-health claims have not emerged as a distinct insurance- litigation category in Oman. Any future exposure is more likely to arise indirectly through existing health, employers’ liability, professional liability or D&O cover. For present purposes, this remains an emerging risk, with disputes likely to turn on causation, insured injury, Oman does not currently have operating nuclear power generation or a developed domestic nuclear- insurance market, so small modular reactor and fusion risks remain prospective rather than a source of cov- erage disputes. 9. Legislative and Regulatory Key Trends 9.1 Regulatory Focus Areas and Supervisory Trends Claims Handling and Consumer Protection The FSA’s supervisory focus increasingly extends beyond prudential solvency to claims handling, con- sumer protection and the technical processes sup- porting insurance decisions. Royal Decree 20/2024 exclusions and the policy period. 8.6 Next Generation Nuclear
214 I NSURANCE L I T IGATI O N 2026
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