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OMAN - Muhammad Bin Hamad Bin Seif Al-Rumhi.

Article Excerpt
Appointed on Dec. 16, 1997 by Sultan Qaboos as Minister of Oil and Gas, Rumhi succeeded Said bin Ahmad bin Said al-Shanfari who then went into retirement but has since been in his private business and acting occasionally as an adviser to Sultan Qaboos. In late April 2003, Sultan Qaboos appointed Rumhi as chairman of the PDO board of directors, succeeding Salem bin Muhammad bin Sha'ban Al Ojaily who had retired in the previous month as deputy minister of oil and gas and as head of the company's board for many years.

The main reason for Rumhi's appointment as PDO chairman was Sultan Qaboos' concern over the sharp fall in the company's oil production since the second quarter of 2002. Rumhi's task there was to make sure PDO will succeed in raising its oil and condensate output capacity from about 670,000 to 820,000 b/d by 2009 and in keeping its gas exploration drive optimised. With the natural gas owned 100% by the government and PDO operating in this field as a contractor for the government, the aim of the company's exploration programme is to find at least 1 TCF of recoverable gas reserves every year.

Before becoming chairman of its board, Ruhmi had criticised PDO for having lacked proper planning in its complicated and expensive enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations. At one time in late 2002, Rumhi was quoted by PDO's internal newsletter 'Al-Fahal' as saying: "I believe that part of our problem is that we (PDO) are fire-fighting at the moment... We have been too preoccupied with trying to get that extra barrel rather than formulating a plan for the long term". The minister was referring partly to a major well blow-out which took PDO a long time to bring under control.

In response to that, John Malcolm, the Shell executive who took over as managing director of PDO in November 2002, told the 'Shell in the Middle East' magazine: "Oil and gas production is indeed a long-term business, and I fully agree with his...