Oman

Oman in one paragraph

Oman is a producer of about one million barrels a day, small next to its Gulf neighbours, whose importance in 2026 came from geography. Its coastline faces the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, outside the Strait of Hormuz, so its oil can reach tankers without passing through the strait. When shipments through Hormuz were disrupted in 2026, the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) estimates for Kuwait, Iraq and Bahrain fell sharply in the second quarter while Oman's rose. This page is built from the EIA's October 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook and from the published figures of Oman's main energy companies: Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), Oman LNG and the OQ8 refinery. The Ministry of Energy and Minerals and the National Centre for Statistics and Information publish their data through interactive portals that could not be read for this review, so ministry production series are not reproduced here. Everything below was checked in October 2026.

Production: the EIA's quarterly estimates

The EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook, Table 3c, October 2026, lists Oman among the non-OPEC participants in OPEC+ and gives total petroleum liquids, which include crude oil, condensate and natural gas plant liquids.

Period	Oman total liquids (million b/d)
2025 Q1	1.00
2025 Q2	1.00
2025 Q3	1.02
2025 Q4	1.03
2026 Q1	1.04
2026 Q2	1.09
2026 Q3	1.09
2026 Q4 (forecast)	1.09
2025 average	1.01
2026 average (forecast)	1.08
2027 average (forecast)	1.09

The series rises gently through 2025 and steps up in the second quarter of 2026. The EIA expects Oman to hold near 1.09 million b/d through 2027. For how the EIA builds and revises these tables, see how to read the EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook.

Insight: what the 2026 disruption did to Oman's neighbours

The same EIA table shows how differently the region's producers fared in the first half of 2026.

Producer	2026 Q1	2026 Q2	2026 Q3	Change Q1 to Q2
Oman	1.04	1.09	1.09	+0.05
Kuwait	2.34	0.93	1.91	-1.41
Iraq	3.55	1.60	3.49	-1.95
Bahrain	0.12	0.04	0.11	-0.08

Figures in million b/d of total liquids, from EIA STEO Table 3c, October 2026.

Kuwait and Bahrain ship from inside the Gulf, as do most of Iraq's exports, so their cargoes depend on passage through Hormuz. Oman's do not. In the quarter when Kuwait's estimated output fell by about 60 percent, Oman's rose by about 5 percent. The rise is small in absolute terms, which is the honest limit of Oman's role: a country producing about 1.1 million b/d cannot replace several million barrels a day of lost Gulf supply. But for buyers in Asia it was one of the few nearby sources whose cargoes were not exposed to the strait. The broader picture of how such disruptions move prices and spreads is covered in OPEC+ explained and the WTI vs Brent spread explainer.

Worked example: Oman's share of the affected group

Using the EIA's second-quarter 2026 figures for the four producers in the table:

• Combined output: 1.09 + 0.93 + 1.60 + 0.04 = 3.66 million b/d.
• Oman's share: 1.09 / 3.66 = about 30 percent.
• In the first quarter, before the drop: 1.04 + 2.34 + 3.55 + 0.12 = 7.05 million b/d, of which Oman was about 15 percent.

Oman's share of this group's supply roughly doubled without Oman producing much more oil. That is the main reason Oman's crude featured in regional supply discussions in 2026, and it is a share effect, not a production surge.

Petroleum Development Oman

PDO is the operator most closely tied to the history of Omani oil. Its own history page records that the search for oil began when a 75-year concession was granted to the Iraq Petroleum Company on June 24, 1937, which set up Petroleum Development (Oman and Dhofar) Ltd, and that after several dry wells oil was found at Yibal and then at Natih and Fahud (PDO, Our Journey, checked October 2026). PDO was registered as a limited liability company in Oman in 1980.

The same history lists the projects that define PDO's operations today:

Project	What PDO reports
Saih Rawl central processing plant	Commissioned with the gas pipeline from Saih Rawl to the Oman LNG plant at Qalhat
Kauther gas plant	Able to process up to 20 million cubic metres of gas a day for the Omani market
Amal West steam plant	PDO's first commercial-scale application of steam-based enhanced oil recovery
Nimr reed beds	A wetland system that treats water produced alongside oil
Qarn Alam and Marmul	Fields where contracts for enhanced oil recovery projects were awarded
Miraah	Announced with GlassPoint Solar as one of the world's largest solar plants
Rabab Harweel integrated project	Described by PDO as the largest capital project in its history
Amin photovoltaic plant	PDO's 100-megawatt solar power plant, now in commercial operation

Why steam and water dominate the story

The list shows what kind of producer Oman is. Several projects exist to inject steam or treat water rather than to drill new fields. Enhanced oil recovery is used where the oil is heavy or the reservoirs are hard to drain, and it costs more per barrel than natural flow, because energy has to be supplied to move the oil. Solar projects such as Amin can supply part of that energy without burning gas, which leaves more gas for domestic use or for the LNG plant. Earlier versions of this page gave output figures for individual fields, a share of production from enhanced recovery and a gas saving from Miraah. None of these could be confirmed from a primary source in this review, and they have been removed.

Oman LNG: running above nameplate

Oman LNG was established by Royal Decree in 1994 and operates three liquefaction trains in the east of the country with a stated capacity of 10.4 million tonnes a year. Its 2025 summary reports 11.5 million tonnes of LNG produced and 96 percent Omanisation of its workforce (Oman LNG, checked October 2026).

Worked example: utilisation above 100 percent

• Production in 2025: 11.5 million tonnes.
• Stated capacity: 10.4 million tonnes a year.
• Utilisation: 11.5 / 10.4 = about 111 percent.

A plant can exceed its stated capacity when the nameplate figure is a design rating and the trains have since been debottlenecked or run at favourable conditions, such as cooler ambient temperatures. The company does not explain the difference on its summary page, so the figure is best read as evidence that Oman's LNG output is limited by plant capacity rather than by gas supply. For readers comparing LNG volumes with pipeline gas, the natural gas storage report guide covers the unit conversions used in US gas data.

OQ8: a merchant refinery at Duqm

OQ8 is a 50:50 joint venture between OQ of Oman and Kuwait Petroleum International. Its refinery in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm has a capacity of 230,000 barrels per day. The company describes it as the Middle East's first fully merchant refinery: it buys feedstock globally rather than taking a fixed supply from one producer, and exports fuels to Asia, Africa and Europe (OQ8, About us, checked October 2026). OQ8 describes 2024 as its first full year of operations, with zero fatalities and zero lost-time injuries over more than 4.5 million working hours.

Worked example: refinery capacity against national output

• OQ8 capacity: 230,000 b/d.
• Oman's total liquids, 2026 forecast (EIA): 1.08 million b/d.
• Capacity as a share of output: 230,000 / 1,080,000 = about 21 percent.

That ratio does not mean OQ8 refines a fifth of Omani oil. As a merchant refinery it can buy crude from any source, and Duqm's location on the Arabian Sea means it, too, sits outside the Strait of Hormuz, on both the supply and the export side. The previous version of this page described Duqm as a $20 billion project and the refinery as making Oman a net exporter of jet fuel and diesel; neither claim could be confirmed and both have been removed.

Hydrogen: what is confirmed

Hydrom was launched in 2022 to organise Oman's green hydrogen sector and is wholly owned by Energy Development Oman (Hydrom, checked October 2026). It runs auctions for hydrogen projects and has announced a third auction round. Earlier versions of this page gave a 2030 production target and named target markets; those figures were not found on Hydrom's site in this review and have been removed. Hydrogen is a long-term diversification plan, not a factor in Oman's oil output on any of the EIA's forecast horizons.

Limits of this page

• No ministry production series. National monthly figures from the Ministry of Energy and Minerals could not be retrieved, so production comes from the EIA, which estimates total liquids rather than crude alone.
• No reserves figure. A verified national reserves estimate was not available in this review, so the reserves field is left blank rather than filled with an unsourced number.
• Company figures are company figures. PDO, Oman LNG and OQ8 publish selectively and round their numbers.
• The 2026 comparison is one table. The neighbour comparison uses a single EIA release. Later revisions could change the quarterly figures, so check the latest Short-Term Energy Outlook before quoting them.

For a ranking of world producers, including where Oman sits, see the global oil production map.

Frequently asked questions

How much oil does Oman produce?

The EIA estimates Oman's total petroleum liquids at 1.01 million b/d in 2025 and forecasts 1.08 million b/d for 2026 and 1.09 million b/d for 2027.

Is Oman in OPEC?

No. The EIA lists Oman among the non-OPEC countries that participate in the OPEC+ arrangements.

Why was Oman's output not hit by the 2026 Hormuz disruption?

Oman's coast lies outside the Strait of Hormuz, so its exports do not need to pass through it. The EIA's estimates show Oman rising to 1.09 million b/d in the second quarter of 2026 while Kuwait, Iraq and Bahrain fell sharply.

How much LNG does Oman produce?

Oman LNG reports 11.5 million tonnes produced in 2025, from three trains with a stated capacity of 10.4 million tonnes a year.

What is the OQ8 refinery?

A 230,000 b/d refinery at Duqm, owned 50:50 by OQ and Kuwait Petroleum International, which buys crude on the open market and exports fuels.

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References

1. U.S. Energy Information Administration. Short-Term Energy Outlook, October 2026, Table 3c. Checked October 2026.
2. Petroleum Development Oman. Our Journey. Checked October 2026.
3. Oman LNG. Oman LNG at a glance 2025. Checked October 2026.
4. OQ8. About us and home page. Checked October 2026.
5. Hydrom. About Hydrom. Checked October 2026.