Life moves slowly at Block 61 in the Omani desert, where the flat terrain bakes in temperatures that can soar above 120F. Lately, though, activity has picked up as hundreds of workers operate drilling rigs and rearrange the landscape with bulldozers, looking for gas.
The complex project involves drilling for gas that’s tightly packed into rocks more than three miles underground. At $15 billion, it’s one of the most expensive exploration efforts ever undertaken in the Middle East. Yet Oman has little choice. Like most of its Gulf neighbors, the country needs new sources of gas to keep the lights on and factories running. The project, by British oil giant BP (BP), could boost Oman’s domestic supply by a third.
The Gulf may have the world’s largest oil reserves, but it’s facing a shortage of gas. Long viewed as a nuisance that hampered production of crude, gas was typically injected back into the ground or flared off. After Shell (RDSA) discovered the world’s largest gas field off Qatar in 1971, there was little demand for its output.
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