MUSCAT: Seeking to bolster production from its Yumna field in its wholly-owned Block 50 licence, Masirah Oil Limited (MOL) plans to shortly kick off a new drilling programme targeting hydrocarbon prospects in this offshore field location off Oman’s east coast.

To this end, Muscat-headquartered Masirah Oil has signed a contract with Northern Offshore Ltd, a leading offshore drilling services firm, for the deployment of a jack-up drilling rig that will undertake a multi-well drilling pogramme in Block 50 starting from around the middle of this month.

As part of the drilling programme, the Energy Emerger drilling rig will drill and complete a new in-field well, and perform a workover of two existing production wells.

The Energy Emerger, with a maximum drilling depth of 9,120 metres, was built by the Chinese state-owned enterprise Shandong Marine Corporation. It is operated by Northern Offshore Limited, a subsidiary of Shandong Marine.

The new drilling campaign is hoped to shore up production of hydrocarbon liquids from the Yumna field, which averaged 1,732 stock tank barrels per day (stb/d) over the full month of January 2024.

In comparison, output in November 2022 amounted to an average of 3,811 stb/d. The Yumna field, presently the only producing field off Oman’s east coast, achieved first oil in February 2020. This paved the way for the approval of its Field Development Plan and Declaration of Commerciality in July that year. Total production from the field reached 7.1 million stb of oil by December 31, 2022.

A previous drilling campaign that concluded in Q4 2022 consisted of a workover of the Yumna-3 well to replace an electrical submersible pump and drilling of the Yumna-4 well, which was completed for production.

Masirah Oil is the operator of Block 50 with a 100 per cent interest. Singapore-based Rex International Holding Limited, a technology-driven oil exploration and production company, owns 91.81 per cent of Masirah Oil Limited.

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