Oman has decided to shelve plans for new oil projects due to a sharp decline in oil prices caused by weak global demand and the spread of Coronavirus, the Gulf country's Oil and Gas Minister said in press comments on Thursday.

Mohammed Al-Rumhi said he was optimistic that crude prices, which have lost over 50 percent in the past weeks, would rebound once the Covid-19 crisis is over and producers inside and outside OPEC reach a new supply agreement.

Rumhi told Oman's Arabic language daily Al-Watan that the Sultanate, a key non-OPEC producer, is sticking to its oil output of around 970,000 bpd and that it wants "safe and stable prices" so it would push ahead with production expansion plans.

"Oman has no plans for the time being to invest in new oil projects although there was a plan to boost output capacity when crude prices were $60-65 a barrel," he said.

"We chalked out investment plans for new oilfields and capacity expansions before oil prices tumbled to low levels now...increasing output means boosting expenditure and we have decided that the current market conditions are not helpful in this regard."

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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