Oman to boost oil output for second consecutive year

Non-OPEC producer Oman is on track to boost oil output for the second consecutive year and beat its target for 2009 of around 800,000 barrels per day (bpd), official data showed on Monday.

Oman has turned around a decline in output during the years 2002-2007 with heavy investment to enhance oil recovered from ageing fields. The sultanate aims to boost output again to around 900,000 bpd in 2010.

Oman is a small producer, but its crude is used to set the price for around 12 million bpd of crude exports to Asia from some of the world's largest exporters in the Gulf.

Output for the first eleven months of 2009 stood at 809,600 barrels per day, up 7.2 percent on the year, data from the ministry of economy showed.

The country's economy minister said last week that output for the full year of 2009 was around 810,000 bpd.

Oman sold its oil at an average price of $55.15 per barrel in January to November, down 47 percent from the same period last year.

Oman's oil output peaked at 956,000 bpd in 2001. (Reuters)