Oman's Gas Demand to Rise by 10% Per Year

Oman’s natural gas usage is expected to grow by 10% per year from this year as growth in power generation capacity, industries and refinery projects boosts demand.

“Demand for gas is growing in all the sectors. In the power sector, it is growing by about 11 per cent, and in the industrial sector demand is growing by five-six per cent annually,” said E Salim al Aufi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil and Gas, reports Muscat Daily.

al Aufi said Sultanate’s gas production was around 90mn m3 per day last year, with output expected to rise to 110-115mn m3 per day this year.

Oman's total gas consumption rose 3.2% in 2013 to 39,114mn m3 compared with 37,919mn m3 in the previous year, Muscat Daily adds citing statistics released by the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

On the issue of gas imports from Iran, al Aufi said, “All we have at the moment is the MoU with Iran. Lots of work still needs to be done to turn the MoU into a real project. We need to inspect the route, we need to do a feasibility analysis and to understand lots of things in terms of the size of the pipeline, tapping point and landing point, and so on.”

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