Malaysian state-owned oil and gas firm Petroliam Nasional Berhad (Petronas) is all set to foray into the onshore Khazzan gas field in Oman by acquiring a 10% stake from Oman Oil.
Image: Petronas to foray into the Khazzan gas field project. Photo courtesy of Vlado/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
In this regard, Petronas will buy the stake in the Khazzan gas field for an undisclosed price through its subsidiary PC Oman Ventures from Oman Oil Company Exploration and Production (OOCEP), which is a subsidiary of Oman Oil.
Petronas emerged as the buyer of the stake following a bidding round held by OOCEP, reported Reuters. The completion of the deal will be subject to approval from the Omani government and other closing conditions.
The Khazzan gas field, which constitutes development of a $16bn natural gas project in two phases, is located in Block 61 in the Ad Dhahirah Governorate. The first phase of the Khazzan natural gas project was completed in September 2017 with production beginning from the onshore field ahead of schedule and within budget.
Currently, the partners in the Khazzan gas field are OOCEP with a stake of 40% through its subsidiary Makarim Gas Development, and BP with a stake of 60%. BP, through its subsidiary BP Oman, is the operator of Block 61, which is made up of the Khazzan and Ghazeer gas fields.
Once fully developed, Block 61 is estimated to yield total production of 10.5 tcf of gas and about 350 million barrels of condensate through the end of concession.
According to BP, production from the phase one of the Khazzan natural gas project is likely to plateau at 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day (bcf/d). The phase one project involves feeding of 200 wells into a central processing facility equipped with two trains.
The second phase of the Khazzan gas project, also called as Ghazeer, is being taken up upon to ramp up production from the onshore Omani field up to 1.5bcf/d.
The phase 2 project is scheduled to commence production in 2020.
In April 2018, BP and OOCEP approved the development of Ghazeer by taking a final investment decision. The Ghazeer project is anticipated to be put into production in 2021, upon which it will deliver an additional 0.5 bcf/d and more than 15,000 bpd of condensate.