As the sultanate cut its oil output from January to comply with a deal between OPEC and non- OPEC producers, Oman’s oil export to China fell sharply by 30% in January.
Crude exports to China dropped to 17.1mn barrels in January 2017 against 24.42mn barres in the same month of the previous year, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Oil and Gas. January exports to China fell by 27% from December as well when Oman’s exports to China stood at 23.46mn barrels.
Amid a sharp decline in exports to China, Oman’s crude export to South Korea surged by 788% to 4.44mn barrels in January this year from just 500,500 barrels in January last year. The sultanate’s oil production declined 4.1% to 29.93mn barrels in January 2017 from 31.2mn barres in January last year.
The country’s daily average production in January fell to 965,600 barrels per day (bpd) from over 1mn barrels bpd averaged for the full year 2016. As part of the OPEC deal Oman pledged to reduce its output by 45,000 bpd from January for first six months of 2017.
OPEC in its February oil market report said Oman’s oil output in 2017 is expected to decline by 40,000 bpd to average around 960,000 barrels following the announced production adjustments, with half of this reduction coming from annual decline.
According to the OPEC report, Russia, Oman and Saudi Arabia were top suppliers to China in December, accounting for 14%, 10% and 10% of total crude supply to China, respectively. China’s share in Oman’s total oil exports fell to 64% in January from 92% in December last year and from 78% for the full year 2016.
