Business & Finance Club Magazine - Oil & Gas Sector -Oman (Muscat) - The statistics released by the National Economy Ministry pointed out that the Sultanate's total crude oil production rose by 8.7% in the first four months of the current year 2010 to hit 102.6 million barrel, compared to the corresponding period in 2009.

The statistics also pointed out that the crude oil production rose by 8% compared to 14.6 for oil condensates which reached 89.9 million barrel and 12.7 million barrel respectively. The average daily production of oil and its average price recorded varying increases during the period, 8.7% and 70.4% respectively.

There has been a slight decline in April 2010 in terms of daily production of oil and average price, 0.04% for each of them compared to March 2010. The average daily production of oil during April 2010 amounted to 853.3 barrels, with an average oil price per barrel of $73.88 compared to 861,400 barrels and $77.04 per barrel in March 2010.

The statistics also pointed out that the Sultanate's oil experts recorded a remarkable increase during the first four months of 2010 (14.8%) to hit 90.8 million barrels compared to 79.1 million barrel during the same period of 2009.

The period also witnessed an increase in the Sultanate's oil exports to Singapore, Thailand, Japan and China with varying degrees, 61.3%, 41.2%, 32% and 23.9% respectively, while there has been a decline of oil exports to Korea and Taiwan by 60.7% and 3.6% respectively.

The statistics released by the National Economy Ministry also pointed out that the oil exports to china, Thailand and Japan constituted 67.2% of the total Omani oil exports during the period. The oil exports to the Chinese markets amounted to 34 million barrel, about 38%, compared to 27.5 million barrel, 34.8% during the same period in 2009.

Thailand came in the second place by 16 %, followed by Japan 13%, compared to 13.3 and 11.6% for both of them respectively during the same period in 2009.

The Sultanate's natural gas production rose by 4.7% during the first four months of the years 2010 to reach 368.989 million cubic feet compared to 352.299 million cubic feet during the same period in 2009.  The production quantities declined by 9.7% in April 2010 due to the decline of the non associated gas production by 10.9% compared to the production quantity in March 2009.