According to Oman’s Ministry of Oil and Gas, its biggest importer of Omani crude exports, China only took 78.4 percent of total exports made by the country in 2019, down from 83 percent a year earlier.
The Asian country took only 243 million barrels of the total estimated volume of 310 million barrels shipped to a group of markets around the world last year whereas, it had taken 240 million barrels of total exports of 289 million barrels of Omani crude in 2018.
Over the past decade, China’s share of Oman crude exports has nearly doubled from approximately 40 percent in 2010. Japan was the second most important destination for Omani crude exports last year, lifting 23 million barrels (7.5%). Its share about a decade ago was about 15 percent.
In third place was India with a 4.8 percent share, lifting around 15 million barrels of Omani crude last year. This compares with a share averaging about 14 percent in 2010.
Myanmar has been a rising market for Omani crude in recent years, accounting or 3.5 percent of the total exports (11 million barrels) in 2019. A further four million barrels (1.4 percent) were shipped to Malaysia, while Tanzania with two million barrels (0.5 percent) and Thailand with 0.5 million barrels (0.2 percent) received some volumes as well.
Oman’s output of crude oil and condensate totaled around 354 million barrels in 2019, down from 357 million a year earlier. This represents an average daily production of 971,000 barrels in 2019, down from 978,000 bpd in 2018, a slight dip of 0.7 percent.
“The Sultanate maintained its level of oil production in compliance with the agreement to curb output among the OPEC and non-OPEC producers in order to stabilize the international oil supply and demand,” said the Ministry in its report.
