DNO investment in Oman Block 8 tops $100 million

Conrad Prabhu -

Muscat, APRIL 18 -

Norwegian oil and gas firm DNO has ploughed in excess of $100 million in Block 8 since it acquired operatorship of the concession offshore Oman’s Musandam peninsula in 2012 — a figure set to rise as the Oslo-based firm seeks to ramp up output from the block.

Block 8 is home to the Bukha and West Bukha fields, currently the Sultanate’s only offshore producing assets. Produced volumes from the block averaged 5,325 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2016 split roughly equally between oil and gas. Output has been on the decline in recent years, slumping to 8,193 boepd in 2015, down from 15,678 boepd in 2014.

The operator has since rolled out a drilling campaign for the current year, designed to bolster output from the block. “In early 2017, DNO spudded the West Bukha-5 sidetrack well, and in addition the company is planning the reinstatement of the Bukha-1 subsea well in order to double production from the block by the end of 2017,” it stated in an overview of its 2016 operational performance.

Cumulative production from Bukha and West Bukha fields, which came into operation in 2009 and 1994 respectively, totaled around 88 million barrels of oil equivalent through end-2016.

Part of the Block’s natural gas output, comprising 77 million cubic metres of associated gas and 117 million cubic metres of non-associated gas in 2016, will be earmarked for Musandam Governorate’s first Independent Power Plant at Tibat, which is due to come into operation soon. The facility is being jointly developed by Oman Oil Company, the wholly government owned energy investment arm, and LG International.