OREANDA-NEWS.    Eng. Salim bin Nasser Al Oufi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil and Gas said that the Sultanate's crude oil production is expected to be 940,000-950,000 barrels per day at the end of this year due to the good results achieved by the end of 2013.

He told the Oman News Agency (ONA) that gas production is currently stands at 80 million cubic metres, additional 5-7 million cubic metres of gas are imported from the Dolphin project to cover domestic needs.

He noted that the Ministry of Oil and Gas continuously signs drilling and exploration contracts, as it is expected to sign six contracts in 2014 in open areas and offering some other areas for marketing.

In response to a question about the cost of producing per barrel of oil, Eng. Al Oufi said that it costs USD 23 last year, noting that the price is not necessarily affected by the world oil prices, but is affected by high inflation as a result of higher prices of services, materials and mechanism of extraction.

Regarding Omanisation, he said that most of the companies in the oil and gas sectors are committed to employ Omanis, and that the rate has reached 80 per cent and some has gone beyond that figure, noting that the number of Omanis working in the Petroleum Development Oman is 6000 out of 7,500 workers at the company.