Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), a joint venture between Oman and oil companies Shell, Total and Partex, has announced an ambitious $20 billion five-year investment program, including four new exploration contracts and cutting edge enhanced oil recovery (EOR ) programs.
PDO managing director Raoul Restucci told the Times of Oman on the sidelines of a conference that the $20 billion will cover primary, secondary and tertiary oil and gas recovery programmes.
“These projects are no longer at the drawing table but today we produce from Marmul with polymer injection, at Qarn Alam with steam and in Harweel with miscible gas, with several more projects in design or execution as we speak. Indeed, we are progressing with the construction of the Amal steam project and the ASP pilot in the Al Khalata reservoir in Marmul,” he said, while addressing the Oil and Gas West Asia EOR conference, reported the Times of Oman.
The conference emphasised PDO’s role in implementing one of the world’s most advanced EOR programs, which includes steam, chemical and miscible gas-driven recovery.
Oman’s relatively small resources and mature field profile have pushed the Sultanate to take a lead on EOR, including solar-powered steamflooding.
PDO will commission Al Amal steam project next year, reports the Times of Oman, which will produce 20,000 barrels of oil per day, and Al Khalata as a pilot project in the second half of 2014. PDO’s tertiary production is slated to rise to 25% of total output by 2020, up from 3.5% last year.
Restucci said that PDO has already cut the energy requirement per barrel by 40% over the last five years, and is researching new EOR technologies. “Our goal is to proficiently apply existing technologies while researching and testing all new technologies to address even more complex or efficient recovery needs,” he told ToO.
Restucci also drove home the frenetic activity in the upstream sector set to dominate the next decade. “Globally and to some extent regionally, more wells will be drilled in the next ten years, than have been drilled in the last 100. Think of the implications on people and on the whole supply chain,” he told ToO.
HE Nasser Bin Khamis Al Jashmi, Undersecretary at the Oil and Gas Ministry, told the Oman Tribune at a separate conference that four exploration deals would be offered this year. Al Jashmi declined to name the fields.
