diff --git a/R/vect.R b/R/vect.R
index ed1743620..eaedd0f3c 100644
--- a/R/vect.R
+++ b/R/vect.R
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ setMethod("vect", signature(x="SpatVectorCollection"),
 
 
 setMethod("vect", signature(x="character"),
-	function(x, layer="", query="", extent=NULL, filter=NULL, crs="", proxy=FALSE, what="") {
+	function(x, layer="", query="", extent=NULL, filter=NULL, crs="", proxy=FALSE, what="", opts=NULL) {
 
 		what <- trimws(tolower(what))
 		if (what != "") what <- match.arg(trimws(tolower(what)), c("geoms", "attributes"))
@@ -98,7 +98,8 @@ setMethod("vect", signature(x="character"),
 		} else {
 			extent <- as.vector(ext(extent))
 		}
-		p@cpp$read(x, layer, query, extent, filter, proxy, what)
+		if (is.null(opts)) opts <- ""[0]
+		p@cpp$read(x, layer, query, extent, filter, proxy, what, opts)
 		if (isTRUE(crs != "")) {
 			crs(p, warn=FALSE) <- crs
 		}
diff --git a/man/vect.Rd b/man/vect.Rd
index 98fe92163..a8fe663ad 100644
--- a/man/vect.Rd
+++ b/man/vect.Rd
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ SpatVectors can also be created from "Well Known Text", and from spatial vector
 
 \usage{
 \S4method{vect}{character}(x, layer="", query="", extent=NULL, filter=NULL, 
-		crs="", proxy=FALSE, what="")
+		crs="", proxy=FALSE, what="", opts=NULL)
 
 \S4method{vect}{matrix}(x, type="points", atts=NULL, crs="")
 
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ SpatVectors can also be created from "Well Known Text", and from spatial vector
 \item{crs}{character. The coordinate reference system in one of the following formats: WKT/WKT2, <authority>:<code>, or PROJ-string notation (see \code{\link{crs}}). See \code{\link{crs}}}
 \item{proxy}{logical. If \code{TRUE} a SpatVectorProxy is returned}
 \item{what}{character indicating what to read. Either \code{""} for geometries and attributes, or \code{"geoms"} to only read the geometries, \code{"attributes"} to only read the attributes (that are returned as a data.frame)}
+\item{opts}{character. GDAL dataset open options}
 \item{geom}{character. The field name(s) with the geometry data. Either two names for x and y coordinates of points, or a single name for a single column with WKT geometries)}
 \item{keepgeom}{logical. If \code{TRUE} the geom variable(s) is (are) also included in the attributes}
 }
diff --git a/src/read_gdal.cpp b/src/read_gdal.cpp
index 26eaee458..d525d5928 100644
--- a/src/read_gdal.cpp
+++ b/src/read_gdal.cpp
@@ -256,7 +256,7 @@ bool GetVAT(std::string filename, SpatCategories &vat) {
 	SpatVector v, fvct;
 	std::vector<double> fext;
 
-	v.read(filename, "", "", fext, fvct, false, ""); 
+	v.read(filename, "", "", fext, fvct, false, "", {}); 
 	if (v.df.nrow() == 0) return false;
 
 
diff --git a/src/read_ogr.cpp b/src/read_ogr.cpp
index a5ca2f74f..e8c139c4e 100644
--- a/src/read_ogr.cpp
+++ b/src/read_ogr.cpp
@@ -673,9 +673,17 @@ bool SpatVector::read_ogr(GDALDataset *&poDS, std::string layer, std::string que
 }
 
 
-bool SpatVector::read(std::string fname, std::string layer, std::string query, std::vector<double> extent, SpatVector filter, bool as_proxy, std::string what) {
-    //OGRRegisterAll();
-    GDALDataset *poDS = static_cast<GDALDataset*>(GDALOpenEx( fname.c_str(), GDAL_OF_VECTOR, NULL, NULL, NULL ));
+bool SpatVector::read(std::string fname, std::string layer, std::string query, std::vector<double> extent, SpatVector filter, bool as_proxy, std::string what, std::vector<std::string> options) {
+
+	char ** openops = NULL;
+	for (size_t i=0; i<options.size(); i++) {
+		std::vector<std::string> opt = strsplit(options[i], "=");
+		if (opt.size() == 2) {
+			openops = CSLSetNameValue(openops, opt[0].c_str(), opt[1].c_str());
+		}
+	}
+		
+    GDALDataset *poDS = static_cast<GDALDataset*>(GDALOpenEx( fname.c_str(), GDAL_OF_VECTOR, NULL, openops, NULL ));
     if( poDS == NULL ) {
 		if (!file_exists(fname)) {
 			setError("file does not exist: " + fname);
diff --git a/src/spatVector.h b/src/spatVector.h
index 35990c00f..091025453 100644
--- a/src/spatVector.h
+++ b/src/spatVector.h
@@ -214,7 +214,7 @@ class SpatVector {
 		SpatVector set_holes(SpatVector x, size_t i);
 		SpatVector remove_duplicate_nodes(int digits);
 		
-		bool read(std::string fname, std::string layer, std::string query, std::vector<double> extent, SpatVector filter, bool as_proxy, std::string what);
+		bool read(std::string fname, std::string layer, std::string query, std::vector<double> extent, SpatVector filter, bool as_proxy, std::string what, std::vector<std::string> options);
 		
 		bool write(std::string filename, std::string lyrname, std::string driver, bool append, bool overwrite, std::vector<std::string>);