BP to decide on USD15b Omani tight gas deal 

(MENAFN) Bob Dudley, BP CEO, said that BP would decide by spring of next year whether to enter a USD15 billion deal to grow BP's tight gas wells in Oman from 3 to 300, Reuters reported.

The deal hinges on whether UK-based BP and the government of Oman, which controls domestic oil prices, can agree on a high enough price for the gas. The tight gas is difficult and costly to extract, Dudley said.

The project would cost about USD15 billion over a decade, Mohammed bin Hamed Al-Rumhy, Oman's Minister of Oil and Gas and Petroleum Development of Oman CEO, said.

BP and Oman signed a deal in 2007 to exploit the gas, and BP plans to start tests from three wells by the end of this summer, Nasser Al-Jashmi, the undersecretary of the Oman oil and gas ministry, said last month.