DUBAI: Oman’s Ministry of National Economy said yesterday crude oil production dropped 5.3% in the first five months of the year as the country’s ongoing output decline extends into the sixth consecutive year.
Omani oil production averaged 713,000 bpd in the five months ending in May, down from a daily rate of 753,200 barrels in the corresponding period in 2006, according to data published on the ministry’s website.
Output was lowest in May at 708,300 bpd, the data show.
Oman is spending billions of dollars on projects aimed at stemming a six-year decline in crude production, which has seen output drop from a high of 956,000 bpd in 2001 to a daily rate of 737,700 barrels last year, according to ministry figures.
Crude oil and natural gas related activities make up about 50% of Oman’s gross domestic product, which last year stood at 13.7bn Omani riyals ($35.8bn) at market prices.
Local firms such as Petroleum Development Oman, the country’s main oil producer, have launched a number of projects applying different enhanced oil recovery, or EOR, technologies to improve crude production rates.
PDO, in which Royal Dutch Shell owns a 34% stake, in May awarded two contracts worth a combined $1bn to Indian and local firms to help it develop the onshore Qarn Alam oil field using steam injection.
On completion in 2010, the Qarn Alam project is set to add as much as 60,000 bpd of crude output.
Occidental Petroleum Corp (Oxy) is working on an EOR project at the Mukhaizna oil field, which is eventually to produce 150,000 bpd.
Oxy has a 45% stake in the project, which is being developed using steam flooding to boost recovery.
China continued to top the list of importers of Omani oil in the first five months of the year at 42.9mn barrels, 18.7% more than in the same period last year, according to the ministry data.
Thailand ranks second, having imported 16.4mn barrels, a 36.5% drop on the corresponding period in 2006, the data show. – Zawya Dow Jones |
