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The rise in use of enhanced oil recovery techniques has caused the cost of Oman’s oil production to surge, says an article on the Society of Petroleum Engineer’s website.
EOR currently accounts for 180,000 to 200,000 barrels per day of the country’s annual oil production of 940, 000 bpd.Petroleum Development Oman announced in 2012 that EOR would grow from to 25% of total liquids production by 2020.
The most common EOR method deployed in Oman is thermal EOR which requires the burning of high quantities of natural gas for the production of steam. That adds an extra and rising cost to the production of oil.
Oman’s oil production decline in 2007 has been reversed with increased use of EOR, as well as additional gains from recent field discoveries.According to Oman’s Ministry of Oil and Gas, Oman produced an average of 940,000 barrels of crude oil per day in 2013 and wants to maintain production at that level for the next 5 years.
Oman has further plans to boost well productivity to up to 300% by continuing to use EOR techniques.
“In comparison with primary oil extraction, which sometimes costs only $4 to $5 per barrel, EOR techniques come at an expense of $10 to $12 per barrel,” said Salim bin Nasser Al-Aufi, undersecretary of the ministry of oil and gas in Oman.
