What Changes Next: Upstream Efficiency & Enhanced Recovery in Oman’s Energy Sector
October 4, 2026By OPES Feature by Swathi Suresh
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For much of the oil industry's history, the upstream equation appeared relatively straightforward: find resources, develop fields and increase production. Today, that equation is becoming considerably more complex. For producers such as Oman, the question is no longer only how much oil can be brought to the surface, but how efficiently, economically and intelligently every additional barrel can be recovered.
This distinction matters as the global energy landscape changes. Oil and gas producers are operating under simultaneous pressure to maintain reliable supply, manage increasingly complex reservoirs, control costs and reduce the energy and emissions intensity of operations. For Oman, where enhanced recovery techniques have long played an important role in developing challenging reservoirs, these pressures are creating a new phase in the evolution of the upstream sector.
Oman produced approximately 365.8 million barrels of crude oil in 2025, according to official statistics. But production volumes tell only part of the story. As fields mature and easily recoverable resources become more limited, maintaining output increasingly depends on extracting greater value from existing reservoirs and infrastructure. That makes efficiency as important a measure of upstream performance as production itself. Enhanced Oil Recovery, or EOR, sits at the centre of this transition.
Oman is already recognised for its experience in technically sophisticated recovery methods, from thermal techniques and polymer flooding to miscible gas injection. According to the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, EOR could account for around 20% of the Sultanate's total oil production in 2026, compared with approximately 15% in 2021. Within Petroleum Development Oman’s portfolio, its contribution is expected to become even more significant over the coming years.
This is more than a technical development. It represents a shift in how the value of an oilfield is understood. A mature field is not necessarily an exhausted field. Better reservoir understanding, more precise injection strategies, improved well management and new recovery technologies can fundamentally change what is economically recoverable. Projects across Oman have already demonstrated this potential. Polymer flooding at Marmul, gas injection at Harweel and thermal recovery at heavy-oil developments such as Mukhaizna have shown that engineering innovation can extend productive field life and unlock resources that conventional production methods would otherwise leave behind.
The next challenge, however, is not simply to deploy more EOR. It is to make EOR itself more efficient. Enhanced recovery can require considerable amounts of energy, water, gas, steam and chemicals. As its contribution to production increases, operators must therefore look beyond recovery rates alone. The real measure of performance will increasingly be the amount of additional production achieved relative to the resources, capital and emissions required to produce it.
This is where the upstream sector's digital transformation becomes particularly important. Reservoir modelling has always been fundamental to petroleum engineering, but the availability of larger datasets, real-time monitoring, advanced analytics, automation and artificial intelligence is changing the speed and precision with which reservoirs can be understood. Instead of responding to declining well performance after it occurs, operators can increasingly anticipate changes. Injection programmes can be adjusted according to reservoir response. Equipment performance can be monitored continuously. Interventions can be targeted where they create the greatest value. The implications extend beyond operational convenience. Better information can mean fewer unnecessary interventions, more efficient injection, reduced downtime and better utilisation of existing infrastructure. In a mature upstream environment, marginal improvements across thousands of operational decisions can translate into substantial gains in production and cost efficiency. It also changes the meaning of the phrase “maximum recovery”. The technically maximum amount of oil that can be extracted from a reservoir is not necessarily the optimum amount to produce. Every incremental barrel carries an economic and operational footprint. Steam must be generated. Water may need to be treated. Gas must be compressed. Chemicals must be transported and injected. Pumps and processing facilities consume power. The future of enhanced recovery will therefore depend increasingly on balancing reservoir performance against a broader set of variables: cost, energy consumption, water intensity, emissions and asset longevity. Oman is particularly well positioned for this conversation because the Sultanate's upstream industry has spent decades solving difficult reservoir problems. Complex geology has forced operators to innovate. What was once primarily a technical necessity could now become a competitive advantage as the global upstream industry places greater emphasis on extracting more from existing assets rather than relying exclusively on new discoveries. The opportunity is to combine this accumulated reservoir expertise with the next generation of digital and low-carbon technologies. There are already examples of how these worlds can intersect. Solar-generated steam has been deployed at the Amal field through the Miraah project, demonstrating an alternative approach to supplying the substantial thermal energy required for heavy-oil recovery. Similar thinking can extend across upstream operations through electrification, renewable power integration, improved water management, methane reduction and more energy-efficient equipment. None of these measures alone will redefine Oman's upstream sector. Their significance lies in how they work together. The next generation of upstream efficiency will emerge at the intersection of subsurface expertise, digital intelligence and operational discipline. Reservoir engineers will have increasingly sophisticated tools to understand field behaviour. Production teams will have more immediate information about asset performance. Operators will be able to assess recovery opportunities not simply according to the number of barrels they produce, but according to the overall value those barrels create.
That represents an important evolution in the industry's mindset.
For decades, the central upstream question was: How do we recover more? The question now becoming equally important is: How do we recover more with less?
Less energy for every barrel produced. Less unnecessary water handling. Less downtime. Lower emissions intensity. More accurate interventions. Better use of existing infrastructure. And ultimately, greater value from reservoirs that have already supported Oman's energy sector for decades. For Oman, the future of upstream production may therefore not be defined solely by the next major discovery. It could be shaped just as significantly by what happens inside the fields already producing today. As enhanced recovery becomes a larger component of the Sultanate's production portfolio, technology will continue to push the boundaries of what can be recovered. But competitiveness will depend on something more nuanced: determining which barrels should be recovered, how they should be produced and how efficiently that can be achieved. The next barrel matters. Increasingly, how Oman produces it will matter just as much.
