Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has announced the discovery of four oil fields. The discoveries, in the north at Ufuq and Dafiq, and in the south at Sakhiya-South West and Mamour, will contribute to PDO’s oil production, ONA reported.
The finds hold out the prospect of further discoveries in the formation, and the current drilling campaign will see up to 16 additional wells drilled over the next 18 months. The finds are also noteworthy in that both discovery wells were contributing to PDO’s oil production within two months of being found.
The two discoveries in the south – Sakhiya-SW and Mamour – will be brought on stream as part of the ongoing Harweel field development. The reservoirs of both fields are deep and under high pressure; they are amongst the oldest oil-bearing reservoirs in the world, formed during the pre-Cambrian era some 500 million years ago.
Nasser bin Khamis al Jashmi, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Oil & Gas and a member of PDO’s Board of Directors, had earlier intimated the announcement of the discoveries. At a recent briefing to the press, John Malcolm, Managing Director of PDO, had expressed his confidence that “there are still some oil and gas fields out there that remain to be discovered.”
Speaking of the four discoveries, Malcolm said: “This is a very important result for PDO and its shareholders. Such discoveries, whose ultimate reserves can be measured in perhaps tens rather than hundreds of millions of barrels, will nonetheless provide valuable robustness to our production levels in the medium term. It is also great to see that the discoveries are rapidly hooked up for development and are already contributing to the oil production of the company in the short term.”
It should be mentioned that The Sultanate's total exports of crude oil reached 238.7,474 million barrels during the first 11 month in 2005, compared to 241.523,6 million barrels during the corresponding period in 2004, constituting a drop of 1.3%.
The statistical bulletin issued by the National Economy Ministry showed that the Sultanate's total production of crude oil and condensates stood at 258.640,3 million barrels in November 2005, against 261.398,9 million barrels during the same period in 2004, constituting a fall of 1.1%.
