Oman boosted its oil production to its highest level of around 907,900 barrels per day in August as it is pushing ahead with plans to expand its hydrocarbon sector and pump one million bpd in 2012, official figures showed on Saturday.

Production in August was around 2.9 per cent above the July output and more than 40,000 bpd above the Gulf country’s crude production in 2010, showed the figures by the Omani oil ministry.

Oman’s crude exports stood at nearly 769,940 bpd in August and China remained the top market of Omani oil, receiving nearly 48.8 per cent of the country’s total crude supplies, the report showed.Oman has been locked in a $multi-billion programme to develop its oil and gas sector and such plans gained pace following the sharp rise in crude prices over the past two years.

The country has already completed a massive LNG project in the southern port of Sur with an output capacity of 10 million tonnes per year. In 2010, non-Opec Oman boosted its oil output by nearly 6.6 per cent to 865,000 bpd to reverse several years of a steady decline from the peak 900,000 bpd output in  2002 as a result of low investment in oil fields.

Oman’s oil minister Mohammed Al Rumhi said recently his country is pursuing plans to pump over 900,000 bpd through 2011 and is targeting one million bpd in 2012 for the first time since it began producing crude over three decades ago.

“Our ambition is to attain an output target of one million bpd for the first time…this is a strategy and an objective, which we are working to achieve.”

In 2007, Oman approved an ambitious $10-billion programme to develop its oil and natural gas resources, which are officially estimated at around 4.5 billion barrels and 30 billion cubic metres respectively.