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Contract Area covers an area
of 2,331 km2 and contains three producing
fields. The three fields are the Sahmah
field, the Ramlat field and the Rija field.
In addition, Block-7 contains the Aydan
marginal discovery. Of the three producing
fields the largest and historically most
productive by a considerable margin has been
the Sahmah field with over 50 million
barrels of oil produced. |
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The Sahmah field field was brought
into production in 1980 and a total of 24
development wells have been drilled of which
14 are currently producing wells. The Ramlat
field was brought on stream in 1986 and a
total of 3 wells have been drilled to date,
and there are 2 water injectors. The Rija
field was brought on stream in 2005 by
completing the suspended Rija-1 well.
All producing wells in the Sahmah field are
artificially lifted. Three wells are
produced using electric submersible pumps
and the remainder and majority of the wells
are artificially lifted by gas lift. Sahmah
has its own dedicated surface facilities
which include power generation and gas
compression for gas lift. After separation
and stabilization, produced oil is exported
via a 10-inch, 100 km pipeline that joins
the PDO operated oil trunk lines which link
the main PDO fields along the axis of Oman
to the storage and tanker export facilities
to the north at Muscat.
The Ramlat field lies 35 km to the north of
Sahmah and the Rija field lies 40 km S-SW of
Sahmah. Production from both fields is
processed on site and stored in a tank.
Stabilized oil is transported by road
tankers to Sahmah facilities for export.
Production from the Contract Area peaked in
mid 1992, with production achieving an
annual average rate of some 14,000 barrels a
day. Production in 2006 averaged 1,655
barrels a day. At the end of 2007, the total
cumulative production from the Sahmah field
was 53.0 million barrels. The forecast
production rate for 2008 including Ramlat
and Rija fields is 1,850 barrels a day.
Light 44°API oil is produced in the Sahmah,
Ramlat and Rija fields at depths of
3100-3700 m, representing some of the
deepest oil production in Oman. The
reservoirs are mainly in the Lower Gharif
Basal Sands and Haushi Limestone of Permian
age. The leached oolitic dolomite and
sandstone reservoirs of the Haushi Limestone
are unique in the Sultanate. The oil is of
‘B’ type, sourced from Silurian Sahmah
source rocks. Ongoing exploration activities
are targeting a Haushi prospect near Sahmah,
Shuaiba closures in the Aydan area and the
deep gas and condensate potential of the
block.
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