Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

PDO to boost oil output to 670,000 bpd in five years

1166453
1166453
minus
plus

Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) yesterday announced plans to ramp up oil production to a new level of 670,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the next five years.


After setting a 550,000 bpd 10-year plateau commitment over the last decade, the Company has consistently grown production and is confident of delivery of further production growth. This comes after it confirmed that 2018 yielded its highest oil output since 2005 of 610,170 bpd, despite the impact of Cyclone Mekunu last May, which disrupted production in the south of its concession area.


Speaking at the annual Ministry of Oil and Gas Media Briefing event at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre, PDO Managing Director Raoul Restucci said: “Our approach has been simple: to stay the course in the face of oil price uncertainty and increasing technical and operational scale challenges. Increasing value delivery for the nation’s development and preparing the business to face changing energy expectations.


“This means more sustainable oil and gas, driving energy efficiency in all aspects of our operations, and broadening our business model to add value to Oman beyond operations in our concession.


“As we head into the next decade, we are stepping up the deployment of new technology and pursuing ever more efficient ways of working to achieve enhanced productivity in our exploration and production business.


“During 2018, we successfully delivered a combined daily oil, gas and condensate output of 1.205 million bpd.”


PDO set new milestones on the safety front, achieving a record 0.15 Lost Time Injury Frequency — a 25 per cent fall on 2017. Total Recordable Case Frequency was also down at 0.71 with more than 214 million manhours of activity.


Restucci said “good progress” was being made on both PDO’s “mega” projects at Rabab Harweel and Yibal Khuff with the former, the largest capital project in PDO history, expected to come on stream in mid-2019, representing a reserve add of more than 500 million barrels of oil equivalent. The latter, an integrated sour oil and gas development, is scheduled for start-up in 2021, developing in excess of 327 million barrels of oil equivalent.


The Exploration Directorate set new records, providing higher quality seismic data acquisition through the deployment of sophisticated Ultra-High Productivity technology whilst delivering impressive unit finding cost of $0.3/barrel of oil equivalent. He said: “The new seismic has enabled us to identify new plays in Central Oman, reaffirming the significant prospectivity in our Concession area.”


PDO ramped up its In-Country Value programme, awarding contracts worth $3.7 billion to nationally registered firms, retaining a value in country of 44 per cent, and supporting the opening of new Oman-based workshops and factories to service the domestic oil and gas sector.


Its National Objectives team generated 17,027 employment opportunities for Omani job-seekers, consistent with the target for the year, in both the oil and non-oil sectors. For 2019, the Company is targeting the creation of 21,000 job opportunities.


Restucci said: “Against a backdrop of fluctuating trends in the global market and increasing technical, operational and financial challenges, I am pleased to announce that, in 2018, PDO exceeded performance expectations across a wide range of asset and functional targets and is well positioned to continue to play our part in support of value creation for all our stakeholders.”


PDO ramped up its In-Country Value programme, awarding contracts worth $3.7 billion to nationally registered firms, retaining a value in country of 44 per cent, and supporting the opening of new Oman-based workshops and factories to service the domestic oil and gas sector.


Its National Objectives team generated 17,027 employment opportunities for Omani jobseekers, consistent with the target for the year, in both the oil and non-oil sectors. For 2019, the Company is targeting the creation of 21,000 job opportunities.


Restucci said: “Against a backdrop of fluctuating trends in the global market and increasing technical, operational and financial challenges, I am pleased to announce that, in 2018, PDO exceeded performance expectations across a wide range of asset and functional targets and is well positioned to continue to play our part in support of value creation for all our stakeholders.”


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon