Oman to spend $16bn on energy in 2017

03 April 2017

Sultanate reached its desired targeted production of million barrels a day in 2016

Oman is looking to spend $16bn on upstream and downstream development of its oil and gas sector in 2017, according to Salim al-Aufi, undersecretary at the sultanate’s oil and gas ministry.

“Upstream expenditure will reach $12.6bn, while expenditure on Oman’s downstream industry will not exceed $3.41bn,” he told reporters at the ministry’s annual briefing in Muscat.

Capital spending on the downstream sector will be around $2.6bn, with $810m to be allocated towards operational costs, he added.

In 2015, spending related to upstream oil and gas in the sultanate stood at $11.3bn, with $7.9bn channelled into the oil sector and the remaining $3.4bn allocated for gas.

“The ministry spent 71 per cent of its entire budget for exploration to boost sustainable development,” added Al-Aufi.

Oman crude oil and condensate output averaged 1.004 million barrels a-day (b/d) in 2016. In comparison, production for 2015 stood at 981,000 b/d.

The non-Opec producer, which complied with Opec producers to lower production by 45,000 b/d, expects production for the first half to be about 970,000 b/d.

The sultanate will maintain production at this level for the second half should production cuts be extended. If there is no agreement on extension, Oman will bring production back to million b/d, added Al-Aufi.

Oman was one of the hardest hit among GCC producers when oil prices collapsed making several field development projects commercially unviable.

Several international companies that operated concessions in the sultanate exited the country as high break even prices made profitable exploration challenging.

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