The Sultanate recorded a massive 166 per cent year-on-year increase in the production of regular (90) petrol during the first two months of the current year with output surging to 1.03 million barrels compared with 388,100 barrels produced last year, according to the latest data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

Super (95) petrol output too logged a 2.1 per cent growth over the period to touch 3.43 million bbl as against 3.36 million bbl in 2015.

Last year, the aggregate output by Oman Oil Refineries & Petroleum Industries Co (Orpic) of regular and super petrol stood at 2.02 million bbl and 23.34 million bbl respectively. The regular petrol accounted for just 2 per cent of Orpic’s total petroleum products output, while the super petrol had a share of 28 per cent.

The first two months registered a 12.8 per cent increase in the output of petroleum products (petrol, jet fuel, oils, LPG, propylene, naphtha, long residual and others taken together) compared with last year, with production increasing to 13.90 million bbl compared with 12.32 million achieved in 2015.

There has been a marked increase of 35.2 per cent in the production of jet fuel (aviation fuel) by the end of February, which surged to 890,500 bbl from 658,400 bbl in the same period of 2015.

Fuel oil output, on the other hand, rose by 33.9 per cent to hit 258,400 bbl as against 193,000 bbl from 156,000 bbl last year. However, in the case of gas oil output, the growth rate was confined to 13.6 per cent at 3.73 million bbl.

Meanwhile, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) production went up 15.8 per cent to 446,700 bbl from 385,900 bbl recorded in the January-February period of 2015.

In contrast, Oman enhanced its SR Naphtha output by a significant 107.1 per cent over the two months, driving production to 783,700 bbl compared with 378,400 bbl during the same period last year.

At the same time propylene production fell 11 per cent to 198,700 bbl while long residual declined 6.6 per cent to 3.05 million bbl. Other products showed a 59.4 per cent slump in output over the first two months compared with last year figures, reported the Oman News Agency.