Oman awarded concession rights to a consortium of France's Total and Thai company PTT Exploration and Production to develop gas in a central block.
Block 12, which stretches across an area of 9,546 square kilometres will be operated by Total with an 80 per cent interest, with PTTEP holding the remaining 20 per cent stake. The two companies will explore and develop non-associated gas as part of their exploration and production sharing agreement, the ministry said.
Oman, one of the smaller producers for oil and gas in the Middle East has been prioritising the development of its gas resources to meet industrial and residential needs. The country, which is not a member of Opec, has comparably sparser gas reserves and has been investing heavily in developing some of its tighter reserves.
BP, for instance, is engaged in the development of Oman’s massive tight gasfield at Khazzan, from where production is expected to reach 1.5 billion cubic feet a day when completed. The gas field, which will see an estimated $16 billion (Dh59bn) in investment, currently produces 1 billion cf/d of gas and around 35,000 barrels a day of condensate.
Gas production in the sultanate is also expected to eclipse its oil output by 2023, according to a study by Rystad Energy.
Oman’s gas production is expected to increase by 130 million cubic metres a day, changing the overall fuel mix to 50 per cent by 2025 from 35 per cent gas in 2015 , according to the Norwegian consultancy.
The sultanate produced 36 billion cubic metres of gas in 2018, which was an increase of 11.4 per cent over the previous year, according to BP's Statistical Review of Energy.
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Series info
Test series schedule 1st Test, Abu Dhabi: Sri Lanka won by 21 runs; 2nd Test, Dubai: Play starts at 2pm, Friday-Tuesday
ODI series schedule 1st ODI, Dubai: October 13; 2nd ODI, Abu Dhabi: October 16; 3rd ODI, Abu Dhabi: October 18; 4th ODI, Sharjah: October 20; 5th ODI, Sharjah: October 23
T20 series schedule 1st T20, Abu Dhabi: October 26; 2nd T20, Abu Dhabi: October 27; 3rd T20, Lahore: October 29
Tickets Available at www.q-tickets.com
Stat Fourteen Fourteen of the past 15 Test matches in the UAE have been decided on the final day. Both of the previous two Tests at Dubai International Stadium have been settled in the last session. Pakistan won with less than an hour to go against West Indies last year. Against England in 2015, there were just three balls left.
Key battle - Azhar Ali v Rangana Herath Herath may not quite be as flash as Muttiah Muralitharan, his former spin-twin who ended his career by taking his 800th wicket with his final delivery in Tests. He still has a decent sense of an ending, though. He won the Abu Dhabi match for his side with 11 wickets, the last of which was his 400th in Tests. It was not the first time he has owned Pakistan, either. A quarter of all his Test victims have been Pakistani. If Pakistan are going to avoid a first ever series defeat in the UAE, Azhar, their senior batsman, needs to stand up and show the way to blunt Herath.
US tops drug cost charts
The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.
Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.
In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.
Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol.
The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.
High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.
