Oil & gas supermajor BP is eyeing a possible $15 billion investment in Oman, and plans to make a decision on whether to proceed in spring 2012.
“Today we have just three wells, with plans to have 300, and this will be one of the largest projects, could be, in BP’s portfolio,” CEO Bob Dudley told the World National Oil Companies Congress, as reported by Reuters.
High production costs could be a factor in declining to proceed, Dudley added.
Mohammed bin Hamed al-Rumhy, Oman’s Minister of Oil and Gas and chairman of state oil company Petroleum Development of Oman, said the gas would be sold to the local market, where prices are controlled.
Al-Rumhy said the $15 billion cost estimate reflected expected expenditure over 10-15 years. Dudley refused to confirm the estimate.
BP signed a concession in 2007 to develop the tight gas, which is in complex formations that are difficult to exploit.
Last month, Nasser al-Jashmi, the undersecretary of the Oman oil and gas ministry said BP would start early production from the three test wells in August.
Since the Deepwater Horizon disaster BP has divested itsself of western hemisphere assets and is looking east, with massive investments in the Middle East and Caspian.Â
