China’s CNPC extends Oman oil production contract for 15 years

China National Petroleum Co., or CNPC, has extended a contract for developing an aged oilfield in Oman for another 15 years, the Chinese state oil and gas group said on Thursday.

In 2002, CNPC won a 50 per cent stake in Oman Block 5, an oilfield that covers an area of 992 sq kms but was producing only 700 tonnes of crude oil a day after more than a decade of over-rapid drilling, CNPC said on its website.

Using technology such as horizontal water injection widely applied in China, CNPC raised output at Block 5 to 2.62 million tonnes in 2018, or about 52,400 barrels per day (bpd), it said.

Production at the block reached 1.33 million tonnes in the first half of this year.

Oman, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), produced an average of 978,400 bpd of oil 2018.