08-07-2025
Lower output, prices cost Oman $1.5bln in 4 months
Oman lost nearly $1.5 billion in the first four months of 2025 as a result of lower crude production and prices, official figures have shown.
The loss coupled with lower gas and refined products earnings depressed Oman's total exports of goods during that period, leading to lower trade surplus.
But projects were not affected by the decline as investments in the oil and gas sector leaping by around 24 percent in the first quarter to nearly $12.5 billion.
The Oil Ministry's figures published in the June bulletin of Oman's national centre for statistics and information showed crude export earnings plunged by around 16 percent to about 2.9 billion Omani rials ($7.5 billion) in the first four months of 2025 from around OMR 3.5 billion ($9 billion) in the first four months of 2024.
An oil ministry report showed the decline was caused by a fall in the average price of Omani crude to around $75 from $81 a barrel during that period.
Oil production by non-OPEC Oman also shrank to around 987,600 barrels per day (bpd) from 996,100 bpd in the same period in line with OPEC Plus output quotas.
The report showed Oman's liquefied natural gas (LNG) income also fell by around 15 percent to OMR752 million ($1.95 billion) in the first four months of 2025 from nearly OMR887 million ($2.3 billion) in the first four months of 2024.
Revenues from the sales of refined products also shrank by around 11.8 percent, pushing down the total hydrocarbon export earnings by nearly 15 percent to OMR 4.87 billion ($12.6 billion) from OMR 5.73 billion ($14.9 billion).
The decline depressed the total value of Oman's total exports of goods by around nine percent to OMR 7.5 billion ($19.5 billion) from OMR 8.3 billion ($21.6 billion).
With imports growing by around nine percent, Oman's trade surplus narrowed to $4.9 billion in the first four months of 2025 from $8 billion in the same period of 2024.
Oman has been locked in a long-standing drive to diversify its oil-reliant economy but the hydrocarbon sector has remained the dominant component of GDP and provides nearly two thirds of the national income.
The Gulf Sultanate is targeting seven percent growth in key non-oil sectors until 2040, mainly in tourism, industry and farming, according to the Economy Ministry.
Oman controls around 900 billion of proven gas resources and around 4.5 billion of recoverable crude deposits, which could run out within 12 years at present production levels and in the absence of new major discoveries.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
