Oxy’s Oman Field Unlikely To Hit Target
US independent Occidental Petroleum’s Mukhaizna field development in Oman is unlikely to hit its 150,000 b/d target, according to a QNB Capital Economic Insight. Oxy originally planned to reach the target in 2011 (MEES, 15 November 2010) but has had to double the expected number of wells needed to inject steam into the reservoir, driving up the project’s cost from $2bn to $9bn. QNBC’s report says it will never reach the target due to the challenging geology. In 2010 the field produced an average of 90,000 b/d and Oxy’s other producing field, Safah near the UAE border, produced 78,000 b/d.
Oman is relying on Oxy to help lift crude production, which was around 790,000 b/d at year end. However, with production from main producer Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) stagnating, any failure by Oxy to hit its target is a blow to Muscat’s plans. PDO is relying heavily on enhanced oil recovery to boost output at Harweel (miscible gas injection) and Qarn Alam (steam injection), and MEES learns that in January 2011 it started the delayed polymer injection project at Marmul. The fields’ output will offset declining production in other reservoirs.
Four smaller producers in Oman are not expected to raise output much. In 2010 Daleel Petroleum (Omani independent Petrogas and China’s state-owned CNPC) produced 26,300 b/d from Daleel; UAE operator RAK Petroleum produced 8,600 b/d from offshore Bukha; Thailand’s PTTEP produced 2,100 b/d from Block 44; and Petrogas’s output was 1,200 b/d from Block 7, according to QNBC. But MEES learns that Lebanese independent CCED expects to bring on stream 30,000 b/d from Sawan East reservoir by year-end.
Copyright MEES 2011.
