Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) plans to drill over 600 wells this year in line with a strategy to maintain and raise oil production levels.

The majority government-owned oil and gas producer is continuing to ‘stay the course’, while also gradually ramping up the transition towards renewable energy resource development as part of its vision to become an exhaustive energy company, PDO’s managing director Raoul Restucci was quoted as saying by the local Oman Daily Observer newspaper.

Restucci said that the base programme remains very active and "we will drill another 600-plus wells this year, as we did last year — so we have a very strong drilling programme, strong production optimisation activities, and continuing reserves replacement programme, while delivering on our production targets."

He added that the company also had a very successful gas exploration programme.

He revealed that a key project set to make further headway in its development is the multi-billion dollar Rabab Harweel complex, expected to produce its first gas later this year.

Restucci said that the Rabab Harweel, one of two mega projects along with Yibal Khuff, is an enormous complex, progressing well below budget and well ahead of schedule.

Along with augmenting its upstream capabilities, PDO is also pursuing its objective to increase its footprint in the clean energy and renewables domain, according to the report.