Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has outlined plans to increase production by 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) by 2019.
The organisation said it was pursuing a robust growth programme despite the volatile oil price environment and also unveiled a series of “promising” new hydrocarbon discoveries.
PDO revealed a number of new exploration breakthroughs, including two discoveries in the Dhulia and Bribe A3C reservoirs, with a cumulative STOIIP of just over 613 million barrels.
There was also a 16% increase in Gas Initially In Place (GIIP) to 75.4 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), underpinned by new discoveries in Khulud West and Mabrouk South.
On the East Flank of the Rima–Marmul field, PDO aims to further appraise, develop and produce a multitude of smaller oil prospects (with an estimated ultimate recovery of 200 million barrels). All four of the prospects drilled in 2014, not only discovered oil, but three are already in production.
Jointly with Production, the Exploration Directorate is also accelerating oil ppraisal and development of PDO’s Upper Shuaiba project in the Lekhwair area with first oil planned in 2017.
On the unconventional oil front, eight wells – including five horizontal – were drilled in the Natih-B resource play. Hydraulic fracturing and testing is progressing, with results expected in the second half of 2015.
PDO’s Gas Exploration team continued to deliver and mature new gas resources with discoveries in the Khulud West, Mabrouk South and Tayseer prospects. Five gas exploration wells were completed and five were tested and hydraulically fracked. One of the main highlights was the ongoing successful fracturing campaign at the Khulud tight gas project, one of the deepest tight gas developments in the world.
Six wells have been steadily producing through the Early Production System since January 2014. The company continues to build on its enhanced oil recovery (EOR) programme, and alongside five ongoing commercial EOR projects, is currently operating two trials – Nimr polymer and Amal West steam, with the Marmul Alkaline Surfactant Polymer (ASP) pilot due to commence operations this summer.
The average PDO daily oil production for 2014 was 570,534 (bpd), well above the existing plateau target of 550,000 bpd, and represents PDO’s highest oil production since 2006.
In addition, the combined average PDO production (oil, gas and condensate) stood at 1.231 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) last year, the third highest in the organisation’s history.
Announcing the 2014 performance, managing director Raoul Restucci said: “Despite the challenging price environment, we maintain our profitable growth plans and we intend to stay the course with a continued focus on business improvement and sustainability.
“Our well engineering and project activity levels continue to grow and we are pursuing early monetisation of prospects where possible. We are confident in our programmed and we must seize the opportunity from the significant oil price decline, enabling increased cost saving opportunities and more collaborative ways of working.
“PDO is a reliable supplier and we intend to get even better and more efficient at exploring and extracting the hydrocarbons which power Oman and meet our shareholders expectations.”
