The average price of a barrel of Omani crude oil increased by 36.6 per cent at the end of January 2018 to reach to $60.8 per barrel compared to $44.5 at the end of January 2017, according to the data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

These statistics show that the Sultanate’s total exports of crude oil and condensates was 25,064,600 barrels at the end of January 2018, which is a decline of 5.9 per cent from the end of January 2017 when the total exports stood at 26,650,100 barrels.

The Sultanate’s production of crude oil and condensate at the end of January 2018 was 29,978,600 barrels, including 26,816,900 barrels of crude oil and 3,161,700 barrels of condensate oil.

China was the largest importer of the Sultanate’s crude oil and oil condensate, as exports of these products to China reached 19,077,500 barrels. It was followed by India with 3,986,000 barrels and Taiwan with 2,001,000 barrels.

On the other hand, total domestic production and imports of natural gas reached 3.807 billion cubic metres at the end of January 2018, which is an increase of 11.2 per cent compared with the end of January 2017, when it was 3.424 billion cubic metres.

The total use of natural gas by Oman’s industrial zones, including Oman Mining Company, Oman Cement and Sultan Qaboos University, decreased by 0.6 per cent at the end of January 2018 to 53 million cubic metres compared to January 2017.

The use of oil and natural gas fields stood at 890 million cubic metres of fuel, a growth by 28.4 per cent compared to 693 million cubic metres at the end of January 2017. The use of oil and natural gas fields varied between 267 million cubic metres as fuel, 322 million cubic metres to inject wells, 171 million cubic metres for fuel and 130 million cubic metres for other uses in the oilfields, which included losses, meter variances and shrinkage coefficient. The use of natural gas in power plants amounted to 490 million cubic metres, which is a decrease by 1.1 per cent.

It is worth mentioning that the non-associated production of natural gas, including imports, was 3.142 billion cubic metres, while the combined production of oil amounted to 665 million cubic metres.