Oman’s upstream aims to rock like its peers

Don’t call it a comeback, newly gas-focused majors have been here for years

Oman has largely missed out on the upstream capex boom underway in neighbouring Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia. Muscat’s focus—perhaps prudently given the relative paucity and high cost of the oil reserves on which its budget depends—has been on preparing for the day its reserves either run out or are no longer commercially viable. But while not towering over its regional competition, the sector is just getting warmer. In mid-September, majors Shell and TotalEnergies signed an exploration and production-sharing agreement for block 11, neighbour to their existing joint venture in block 10 in the central Al-Wusta governorate. In the latter, the majors were committing with the certainty of being ab