Oil and gas companies operating in Oman are increasingly looking for opportunities to save cost following the drop of oil price, Muscat Daily reported a senior government official as saying.Â
One of the companies looking to make savings is Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the largest oil producer in the Sultanate.Â
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Oman Refining and Petrochemical Exhibition and Conference on Monday, H.E. Salim Al-Aufi said that PDOÂ now has an intensive programme in place to look at all operations and identify opportunities for cost optimisation.
The ministry has also asked oil producers to review their activities and costs in view of the weak oil prices.
“Companies are reviewing their operations and have already identified a number of opportunities. All of them, including PDO and Occidental, have revisited their operations and activity with contractors and are identifying areas where they can save,” he said.
However, the government has not set any cost-cutting targets for companies operating in the Sultanate, he added. “We have asked them to identify the opportunities and bring them to our notice.
“The only condition we have is that under no circumstance should it involve releasing of Omanis from employment at these companies.”
Al-Aufi said Oman has not slowed down investments in the oil and gas sector and projects will ontinue as planned.Â
He confirmed that the Sultanate has increased oil output this year with a key contributor being PDO’s enhanced recovery project Harweel, pumping a total of 48,000 barrels per day.
“We can touch 1mn barrels per day of oil production provided that every well and facility is running and there are no unscheduled or scheduled deferments. Our target is to produce 980,000 barrels per day this year,” the official said.
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