Oman oil projects under review

14 January 2015

Officials responsible for gas projects told to look for savings

Oman’s government has put capital projects to develop the country’s oil reserves under review and officials responsible for gas projects have been told to look for savings, as the sultanate looks to cut back on spending due to low oil prices.

“A number of oil projects are being looked at. So far, no gas projects have been put under review, but officials are under pressure to cut costs,” says a person with knowledge of Oman’s capital projects market, who asked not to be named as he is not authorised to talk to the media.

The source declined to name the oil projects that are currently being reviewed.

Oil producing nations such as Oman are looking ahead to a year of lower revenues due to a slump in oil prices of 60 per cent since June last year.

On 8 December, US credit ratings company Moody’s Investors Service highlighted that Oman and Bahrain would be the most severely affected out of the six GCC nations due to the higher oil prices needed for their budgets to break even.

The sultanate has been planning to carry out several projects using enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology, which it has used to increase output from its mature fields.

Follow Wil Crisp on Twitter: @bilgribs

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