After a long and highly anticipated wait, Oman and BP appear just weeks away from reaching a final deal on the Khazzan tight gas project on Block 61, which could go a long way to easing the country’s burgeoning gas shortage. Talks had been deadlocked for more than three years over a variety of key issues, but an agreement on the commercial framework reached last June laid the groundwork for what has since been a sustained push to the finish line. The start date has also been put back to “inshallah” mid-2017.
“With BP we are expecting hopefully [to finalize the deal] before the end of the month,” Undersecretary to the Omani Ministry of Oil and Gas (MOG) Nasir al-Jashmi told reporters on the sidelines of the 2013 Gas Arabia Summit in Muscat this week. “It is mainly just the legal documents that are left to do. But most of the terms have been agreed on [by both parties],” he said. (CONTINUED - 1139 WORDS)
