Oman boosts oil production to record high in June

Oman has ramped up its oil production to a record high in June, adding to a global supply glut that has hit oil prices, as the Gulf Arab country compensates for the drop in its oil revenue.

June production reached 992,700 barrels per day of crude oil and light oil condensate, the highest ever according to official records going back to 2002. It produced an average of 975,000 bpd in May.

The sultanate is under pressure to pump more oil to make up for the drop in the price. It hopes to boost its crude oil production by 5 per cent to 1 million barrels per day in 2015.

Brent crude oil was trading around $51 a barrel on Monday, down from $115 a barrel in June last year.

The drop in crude prices has hit hard. Oman posted a budget deficit of OMR 1.50bn ($3.90bn) in the first five months of this year, swinging from a OMR 232.9m surplus a year earlier, finance ministry data showed on Sunday.

Oman is a small independent producer, not in OPEC, but its crude forms part of the benchmark price for millions of barrels per day of exports from Middle East producers to Asia.

In 2013, Oman exported an estimated 833,400 bpd of crude oil and condensate, of which nearly 60 per cent went to China, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.