Swedish independent Maha Energy has produced 4,000 barrels of ultra-heavy 11-13° API crude oil from appraisal drilling at Oman’s Block 70. The Swedish firm has a 65% stake alongside Omani firm Mafraq Energy (35%) and from an eight-well drilling campaign produced oil to the surface from five wells – each well produced at an average 300 b/d.
Maha has to decide by late October whether to extend its three-year exploration agreement (MEES, 2 October 2020), but having produced oil is optimistic on its future at the block. The issue now is that having filled up storage facilities, Maha has to work out how to flow the viscous crude into Oman’s pipeline system – no easy task. “Maha is now scaling up chemical treatment of the produced oil…to reduce viscosity and enhance flowability. Thereafter, the aim is to achieve the required specification to offload the produced oil to the third-party facility for further processing and transportation through the Omani national pipeline system,” the firm stated on 2 August. (CONTINUED - 161 WORDS)