Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has completed appraisal work on the gas discovery it announced making in March this year, according to a media report.

The state oil giant is now waiting for Oman’s Oil & Gas Ministry to approve its plan to develop the Mabrouk gas field.

The gas find is located in the northern part of PDO’s concession area in Block 6, and has reserves worth an estimated 4 trillion cubic feet (cf) of recoverable gas and 112 million barrels of condensates.

At the time of the announcement, PDO said five wells had already been drilled in the Mabrouk field, all of which encountered gas. Of the five, one was already producing and a second was to be brought online soon. Work was also progressing on two additional appraisal wells.

Oman is seeking to develop its natural gas assets in a bid to becoming self-sufficient in meeting domestic gas demand, as well as to realise the larger ambition of being able to export surplus output.

The sultanate’s Oil Ministry in May announced that it has signed two memoranda of understanding (MoU) with international energy majors Shell and Total for upstream and downstream gas projects.

Oman’s MoU with Shell covers upstream gas exploration and development, a gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Duqm port, liquified natural gas (LNG) and renewable energy projects.

The MoU with Total will see the French energy major partnering with Shell to develop recent gas discoveries in the Greater Barik area of central Oman, a venture that PDO is expected to enter.

According to the ministry, the sultanate’s total oil and condensate reserves stood at 4.74 billion barrels at the end of 2017, along with gas reserves of 24.96 trillion cf.