Thirst for oil feeds Oman innovation

…For Oman, the plunge into enhanced oil recovery is a necessity.

The world’s other oil producers, even Saudi Arabia, will one day follow. With oil prices wedged above $100 a barrel this year, investors worldwide are sinking billions of dollars into enhanced oil recovery.

“The world has to,” said Matt Simmons, an energy investment banker and a leading proponent of the argument that oil will run out sooner rather than later, in a telephone interview from the United States. “Because it’s the last game going.”


Even Oman has had to realize, however, that there’s no single “magic undiscovered field or technology,” cautioned Sadad Husseini, a veteran former petroleum geologist for Saudi Aramco.

Less flashy moves than enhanced recovery, such as recent decisions by Oman to open its oil fields to more competitors, are at least as smart, Husseini said.

With enhanced oil recovery, “It’s just a case of people catching on to the buzzword that this is going to fix it, and we’re going to get a whole lot of oil out of it,” Husseini said. “And it doesn’t quite do that.”

Boston Globe