Oman's billion barrel opportunity: Habhab ultra-heavy oil

Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), Oman's largest operator, has launched a tender for a portion of the Habhab ultra-heavy oil field. The opportunity involves the development of one billion barrels of oil initially in place, under a service contract in partnership with PDO. The project is technically challenging due to the heavy, viscous oil and tight sandstone reservoir. Despite this, it represents the largest discovered resource opportunity (DRO) to be offered from PDO's Block 6 since 2005, which will tempt some investors to investigate the opportunity. We have modelled an indicative development scenario for Habhab and believe it is a technically and commercially viable development on a pre-tax basis. However, the project is not commercial under PDO's current concession. Price will be critical to maximising investor returns but our modelling demonstrates that securing generous terms by Oman standards, will be essential to successful project execution.