Oman will raise oil production to 804,000 barrels per day by the end of 2009 from 784,000 barrels now, its economy minister said.

Ahmad bin Abdul-Nabi Mekki was quoted in a statement from the Oman Ministry of Economy.

Oman has spent heavily on several long-term programmes to enhance oil recovery from ageing fields, and its efforts appear to have begun paying off, with output rising last year for the first time since peaking in 2001.

However, analysts feel the quality and price of Oman’s benchmark crude will deteriorate as it boosts efforts to raise output.

Oman is a small producer but its crude is used to price around 12 million bpd of exports to Asia from some of the largest exporters in the world in the Gulf. That is about a sixth of global supply, reported Reuters.

(Upstream Online)