Eric Watkins
OGJ Oil Diplomacy Editor
LOS ANGELES, May 28 -- BP PLC will begin production from two tight gas fields in Oman later this year, according to a senior Omani energy official.
“BP will start producing gas from Khazzan and Makarem fields in August,” said Nasser al-Jashmi, the undersecretary of Oman’s oil and gas ministry.
BP signed a production-sharing agreement with Oman in 2007 for the two gas fields, which lie on Block 61.
Jashmi said he expected production to reach less than 1 million cu m from the early production this year, but he said that the volume is expected to increase in 2011.
In November 2009, BP completed drilling five of eight appraisal wells as part of its development program for the reserves on Block 61.
“BP will drill eight appraisal wells in total by 2011,” according to BP Oman general manager Jonathan Evans, who added, “So far we’ve done five wells, which have provided a lot of useful information on the nature and the scale of the reservoirs.”
In a company report, Evans said, “Our latest test site, Khazzan 5, initially produced about 40 MMcfd of gas and has the highest flow rate of any well we've drilled so far.”
According to analyst IHS Global Insight, the tight gas project on Block 61 has the potential to be a “game changer” for both Oman, alleviating its shortages fundamentally, and for BP, making it the first port of call for all with tight gas reserves globally.
In 2007, Oman’s Oil and Gas Minister Muhammad bin Hamad al-Rumhi said BP would to invest $700-750 million on the fields, which could contain as much as 30 tcf of gas, almost doubling the country’s current reserves of 35 tcf.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
Photo from bp.
Photo from Equinor | Stuart Conway.
