BP strengthens Middle East gas portfolio with new investment in Oman

British energy major BP has approved its first major project this year

Energy major BP has approved its first major project this year, a natural gas field in Oman. Courtesy Damac Properties

Energy major BP has approved its first major project this year, a natural gas field in Oman that will help it make up for the loss of other assets in the Middle East.
The British company and Oman Oil Company Exploration & Production have approved the second phase of the onshore Khazzan project, which will start output in 2021, according to a statement Monday. The new investment will boost overall output at the site by 50 per cent to 1.5 billion cubic feet a day
(255,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day).

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The new project will add to output from the first stage of Khazzan, which started last year, and help BP counter the loss of an Abu Dhabi oil asset as the emirate brought in Chinese, Indian and Italian drillers. Having been squeezed out of that project, BP will focus on gas production in the region
including in projects such as Zohr in Egypt.
BP wants gas to dominate its production slate in the years ahead as the world transitions to lower carbon fuels. Six of the seven projects it started last year were gas-producing. It intends to start five more this year, three of which are gas-focused.

Khazzan is unique because it’s one of the few fields outside the US that uses technology which kicked off the shale boom. While the rocks BP is drilling into aren’t shale, it has applied hydraulic fracturing to boost output at the site.

BP didn’t disclose how much the new Oman development, called Ghazeer, would cost. The two phases will together produce a total of 10.5 trillion cubic feet of gas and 350 million barrels of condensate.