A Royal Decree issued by His Majesty Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik ratified the General State Budget for the year 2022. And while it grants attention to the education and SME sectors, and in providing employment options for Omanis at large, it also focuses heavily on the energy sector.

And, with oil prices underscored at US$50 per barrel for the budget, it was announced that oil production in the Sultanate will rise to one million barrels per day.

It must be noted that the average price of Omani oil was pegged at US$81.58 per barrel for the month of December 2021.

As per a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance, OERLive learns that the Sultanate aims to produce 1.05 million barrels of crude oil per day in a bid to “deal with price fluctuations”.

The statement further iterates: “The value of spending in the budget for 2022 is estimated at RO12.13 billion. The budget deficit stands at RO1.55 billion and revenue stands at RO10.58 billion.

“The deficit will be financed by domestic and external borrowing of RO1.15 billion and RO400 million will be withdrawn from strategic reserves.”

Among the targets issued by the State General Budget, we also learn that other tickers that align with the Oman Vision 2040 include: maintaining a safe and sustainable level of public spending, continuing to raise the contribution of non-oil reserves, giving priority to completing the digital transformation programme, giving priority to the implementation of projects with respect to the productive sectors, maintaining the level of spending on basic services, and continuing to work on improving the credit rating of Oman, and continuing to support training and rehabilitation and create new job opportunities for Omanis.