OMAN HAS NO plans to cut oil production this year, said a top oil and gas ministry official after the country managed to arrest six-year production decline. "We plan to increase the daily production of crude oil and condensates from 757,000 bpd in 2008 to 805,000 bpd this year,
" Nasser Bin Khamis Al Jasmi, Under-Secretary for Oil and Gas, said in his speech during the annual Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) media briefing at the Oil and Gas Exhibition Centre recently.
He added that the ministry's efforts over the past years, together with those of the PDO and other oil companies operating in the country led to Oman's crude oil and condensates' production rising from 710,000 bpd in 2007 to 757,000 bpd last year. The undersecretary also pointed out that the oil and gas sector, as any other economic sector, was affected negatively or positively by the world market fluctuations.
Al Jasmi pledged that the oil and gas sector in Oman will go ahead with projects that have been committed earlier. "In this connection, the ministry plans to offer five new concession areas this year to prospectors." Al Jasmi said Canadian Epsilon Energy has been awarded a concession for oil and gas exploration in block 55 in the Wusta region.
