Oman’s PDO reports major gas find in Mabrouk field

Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) reported a major gas find in the northern area of Mabrouk field with an estimated 4 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of recoverable gas and 112 million barrels of condensates.

In total, five wells have recently been drilled in the field and all have encountered gas, PDO said in a statement. One of the wells is already producing and another will be hooked up shortly. Work is also progressing on two further appraisal wells, with plans for the expansion of production infrastructure. Additionally, exploration is continuing in nearby prospects.

Mabrouk North East builds on the discovery made in March 2013, when PDO announced another significant find at Mabrouk Deep, some 40km west of Saih Rawl.

“This is an exciting find which will provide a boost for economic growth in Oman and help meet rising gas demand from residential, commercial and industrial customers,” PDO managing director Raoul Restucci said, according to a statement on the company’s website. The announcement was initially made at an annual news event by the Ministry of Oil and Gas.

“Once again, our Exploration Directorate has performed admirably in challenging conditions to identify, discover and appraise a major hydrocarbon find which will make a substantial contribution to Oman’s sustainable development,” he added.

Exploratory drilling has taken place at depths of 5,000 metres with the Barik and Miqrat reservoirs tested at commercial flow rates of up to 1.2 million cubic metres per day after fracturing, the statement said.  The discovery follows PDO’s acquisition of high resolution 3D Wide Azimuth seismic data in the area in 2015.  PDO said further prospects are also being drilled.

PDO, the country's top oil and gas exploration and production company, operates gas fields and processing plants exclusively on behalf of the Omani government. The average government gas supply during 2017 was 76.64 million cubic metre per day (m3/d), lower than the initially targeted level of 83 million m3/d due to the start of BP’s Khazzan field.