Energy

Duqm refinery fuels $6.5bn growth in Oman’s oil exports

April 23, 2025, 4:17 PM

Salalah Port, Oman. Oman's hydrocarbon exports jumped by $6.5 billion in 2024, primarily due to the explosive growth in refined product sales from the Duqm Refinery

Refined products exports
Attributed to Duqm Refinery
Oman, Kuwait joint venture

Oman’s hydrocarbon exports swelled by nearly $6.5 billion last year due to a surge in sales of refined products following the commissioning of the sultanate’s largest oil refinery.

The Gulf country’s hydrocarbon exports surged from OR13.8 billion ($35.8 billion) in 2023 by nearly 18 percent to OR16.3 billion ($42.4 billion) in 2024.

Crude exports edged up by only 1 percent to OR9.9 billion ($26.7 billion) from OR9.8 billion ($25.5 billion) in 2023, according to finance ministry data published this week by the Nation Centre for Statistics and Information.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales slipped by nearly 2 percent to OR2.5 billion ($6.5 billion) from OR2.6 billion ($6.7 billion) in the same period.

But refined products exports rocketed by 185 percent to OR3.9 billion ($10 billion) from OR1.35 billion ($3.5 billion), according to the data.

The surge in refined products sales followed the commissioning of the $9 billion Duqm Refinery, a joint venture owned by the Omani government-owned OQ and Kuwait Petroleum International, a subsidiary of the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.

In February 2024, owners reported that the Duqm Refinery on Oman’s east coast was running at full output capacity of nearly 230,000 barrels per day.

Duqm is the largest oil refinery in Oman and is part of ongoing plans to diversify the country’s sources of income. Officials said in 2024 that the Duqm facility would nearly double Oman’s refinery output capacity to around 500,000 bpd.

Oman produced nearly 990,000 bpd of crude oil and exported about 830,000 bpd in 2024, according to the oil ministry.

Oman is also a major exporter of LNG from its liquefaction facility in Qalhat near the southern port of Sur, with an output capacity of just over 10 million tonnes per year.

Oman controls around 5 billion barrels of recoverable oil deposits and nearly 25 trillion cubic feet of gas. In the absence of major discoveries, Oman’s oil could run out within 15 years and gas after 20 years.