The Dubai-Oman crude oil market is also priced in dollars.

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The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), a venture involving Western corporations along with Kazakstan, Russia and Oman, will carry oil west, north of the Caspian Sea.

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It could redouble its efforts to extract heavy oil in Oman.

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Shell has announced investments in a number of projects including a deep-water project in Nigeria and an oil recovery project in Oman.

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In Oman Shell overbooked 250 million barrels of oil equivalent in reserves it expected to find in expansions of existing fields.

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The government's new investment and export-promotion department aims to lure enough foreign companies to the country to provide jobs for most of Oman's school-leavers by the time the oil runs out in 15 years' time.

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While the developed world, led by the U.S., staggered through a global credit crunch, China's gross domestic product grew 11% in the first quarter, and the Gulf Cooperation Council--the oil-rich federation of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates--averaged nearly 7% growth in the same period.

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The six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries-- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)--channel their oil wealth into homeland economies and mammoth infrastructure projects.

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