Petroleum Development Oman the premier hydrocarbon exploration and production company in the sultanate has been ranked among the top 20 leading oil producers and reserve holders based outside the US by the Oil and Gas Journal.
According to the Journal's annual survey of top 100 leading oil and gas companies based outside the US, PDO was ranked 20th this year in terms of both output and reserves.
The survey said that PDO 's oil output in 2011 was 315.4 million barrels while its reserves stood at 5.5 billion barrels. Unchanged for the last nine years, the top two oil producers in terms of volume, according to the survey, are Saudi Aramco and National Iranian Oil Company. In terms of reported oil reserves Saudi Aramco topped the list with 264.4bn barrels in reserves followed by Petroleos de Venezuela Sa with 211.2bn barrels.
Norway's Statoil and Petroleum Development Oman joined the list of the top 20 oil producers in the survey this year replacing Eni SPA and Libya's National Oil Corporation.
The top nine oil reserves leaders are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries followed by Russia's OAO Rosneft and OAO Lukoil. Collectively, the top 20 oil reserves holders reported a total of 1.19tn barrels in reserves. This compares to 1.14tn barrels reported in the previous survey. Oil output in 2011 by the current list of top 20 companies totalled 17.15bn barrels, as compared to 16.72bn barrels in 2010, OGJ said.
The report added that the world's largest oil and gas producers reported improved financial results in 2011 from a year earlier as stronger oil prices bolstered earnings. PDO which accounts for more than 70% of Oman's crude oil production and nearly all of its natural gas supply, has annual CAPEX plans of USD 4 billion for the next 5 years.
The company has been investing heavily in enhanced oil recovery techniques in recent years, as it looks to boost the overall percentage of oil recovered from its fields. PDO 's oil production from its EOR projects was 3.5 per cent of total output in 2011 which the company hopes to raise to 33 per cent by 2025.
Source - Muscat Daily
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