Oman - Having extracted just over 7 million stock tank barrels (MMstb) of crude oil from the Yumna field in Block 50 off Oman’s east coast, the operator of the concession wholly owned by Masirah Oil Limited says it is pressing ahead with a strategy to ramp up output from the field during 2023.

Singapore-based Rex International Holding Limited, which indirectly owns a majority stake in Masirah Oil Limited, said production from the Yumna field — the first significant oil discovery off Oman’s eastern seaboard — has averaged a gross 5,515 stock tank barrels per day (stb/d) as at February 2023. In volume terms, a stock tank barrel of oil is the same as a standard barrel of oil — equivalent to around 159 litres — with the exception that gas may have escaped from the former.

Block 50, covering an area of approximately 17,000 sq km, located in Gulf of Masirah, is 100 per cent owned by Masirah Oil Limited.

Rex International Holding, a multinational oil exploration and production company listed on the Singapore stock exchange, holds an effective interest of 91.81 per cent in Masirah Oil through its indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Rex Oman Ltd.

Buoying hopes for an uptick in production from the Yumna field are a number of initiatives undertaken by Masirah Oil Limited during the course of 2022 aimed at unlocking the field’s hydrocarbon potential.

Notable was a major change-out and upgrade of production facilities at the Yumna field. It included the replacement of the previous floating storage tanker and a change-out of the Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU) to handle increased liquid production and allow these production facilities to serve until the field’s end of life.

Additionally, a multi-well drilling campaign that began in 4Q 2022 was completed in January this year. As part of the drilling campaign, the Yumna-3 well underwent a workover to replace a faulty electrical submersible pump. Yumna-4 too was also completed as a production well.

Also during 2023, Masirah Oil plans to undertake a block wide review of exploration opportunities. Based on the results of the review, planning of the acquisition of additional targeted seismic will be implemented, majority shareholder Rex International noted in its 2022 Annual Report.

Production from the field since Declaration of Commerciality in July 2020 has totalled 7.1 million stock tank barrels (MMstb) of oil. Produced oil is sold to an off-taker that handles the ship-to-ship liftings of oil, according to Rex International.

Rex International Executive Chairman Dan Broström said the company’s primary goal for 2023 is to “build up” production from Block 50 — currently its only upstream asset in Oman.

Citing the latest Qualified Person’s Report (QPR), he said the remaining 2P reserves (sum of proven and probable reserves) have increased to 8.7 million stb/d, ensuring that “production will be able to continue for longer in Oman than previously envisaged”.

“In addition, we will continue to look for investment and development opportunities to bolster our production,” the Executive Chairman stated in reference to its portfolio distributed across Oman, Norway and Malaysia.

Rex International credits its proprietary liquid hydrocarbon indicator Rex Virtual Drilling technology, which can identify liquids in the sub-surface using seismic data, for the oil discovery in Block 50 in Oman, as well as in Norway and Malaysia.

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