MUSCAT: Oman recorded a 3.2 percent rise in oil production for the January–August period this year, at 237.36mn barrels, compared with 230mn barrels in the corresponding period of 2014.
In August, the sultanate’s daily average production came in at 988,800 barrels per day (bpd), slightly below the record of 1mn bpd recorded in July, statistics released by National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) on Sunday showed.
The price of Oman crude averaged US$60.2 per barrel for the first eight months of 2015, down 43 per cent from US$105.7 per barrel registered for the same period of last year.
Boosted by recent highs, Oman’s daily average production for the January–August period of 2015 came in at 976,800 bpd, against 946,600 bpd in the same period of 2014.
In first eight months of 2015, Oman’s total oil exports rose 4.7 per cent to 205.97mn barrels from 196.75mn barrels a year earlier. China accounted for 78 per cent (or 160.8mn barrels) of Oman’s total oil export. This compares with its 68 per cent share in the same period last year. In August, nearly 81 per cent of Oman’s total oil exports were accounted for by China.
However, as oil shipments to China grew, exports to other traditional Asian buyers dropped significantly with major falls recorded in exports to Japan (-38.8 per cent), South Korea (-50.6 per cent) and Thailand (-34.1 per cent).
Exports to Taiwan and India fell 10.4 per cent and 79.7 per cent, respectively. Singapore, on the other hand, increased the import of Oman crude by 4.6 per cent to 3.49mn barrels during first eight months of 2015.
H E Salim al Aufi, undersecretary at the Ministry of Oil and Gas, speaking on the sidelines of the recent launch of The Oil and Gas Year report, urged the oil and gas industry to press on with their efforts to increase production in the sultanate. He said the industry is still profitable [despite the decline in oil prices] as the gap between Oman’s cost of production and international oil prices is wide enough for oil firms to make profits. “We are maintaining the target to produce maximum volumes,” he added.
In the state budget for 2015, the government had set a target of 980,000 bpd. Last week, the Organization of Oil Production Countries (OPEC) revised up its forecast for sultanate’s oil output to average 970,000 barrels per day in 2015, up 15,000 bpd from the oil cartel’s previous forecast.
