Oman targets one million bpd oil output

Oman is pushing ahead with plans to pump nearly 900,000 barrels per day of oil in 2010 and is targeting one million bpd in 2012 for the first time since it began producing crude more than three decades ago, its oil minister has said.

Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhi said Oman, which is not an OPEC member, has already reached 900,000 bpd and would begin producing at that rate in 2011 following the completion of development plans in some fields.

Quoted by Oman’s media, Rumhi said the government and its foreign partners are pursuing massive expansion plans in the hydrocarbon sector to reverse a decline in oil production in previous years.

“We have reached 900,000 bpd and we expect to start producing this level in 2011…this means that we will see a steady rise in output every year,” he said.

“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.”

He said Oman is also pursuing an extensive oil and gas exploration programme onshore and offshore, adding that he hoped it will produce good results.

Oman has already boosted its oil production to a nine-year high of 875,000 bpd as the Gulf country is pushing ahead with a $multi-billion expansion programme.

It also pumped nearly 97 million cubic metres a day of natural gas in September, an increase of about seven per cent over the same period of last year.

“Oman’s oil production stood at around 875,000 bpd in September, the highest level since 2001,” Nassir bin Khamis Al-Gashmi, Undersecretary of the Omani Ministry of Oil, said in local press remarks last month. He said oil production in Oman is managed by seven companies, including the government-controlled Petroleum Development Oman, which controls the bulk of the country’s hydrocarbon sector. The official said 22 local and foreign companies are also involved in exploration in the country.

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.

The plan is designed to develop gas deposits and push up oil production to previous levels. Production began recovering in 2008, when it grew by nearly 6.5 per cent to 756,000 bpd from 710,000 bpd in 2007.

Official data showed Oman pumped around RO655.7 million (Dh6.2 billion) in its oil sector and RO295.9 million (Dh2.8 billion) in the gas sector in 2009.