That estimated dollar amount reflects a 71.7% expansion from $32.9 billion during 2017.
Year over year, revenues collected for Oman’s total exports accelerated by 61.8% compared to $34.9 billion for 2020.
Oman’s top 5 most valuable exported products are crude oil, petroleum gases, processed petroleum oils, nitrogenous fertilizers, and semi-finished goods made from iron or non-alloy steel. Combined, those 5 product types represent about four-fifths (80.6%) of Oman’s total exports by value in 2021. Such a high percentage indicates a concentrated range of exported goods.
Given Oman’s population of 4.57 million people, its total $56.5 billion in 2021 exports translates to roughly $12,400 for every resident in the Middle Eastern country. That dollar amount greatly exceeds Oman’s average $7,200 per person one year earlier during 2020.
Oman’s Top 10 Exports
The following export product groups represent the highest dollar value in Omani global shipments during 2021, at the 2-digit Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) code level. Also shown is the percentage share each export category represents in terms of overall exports from Oman.
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$40.7 billion (72.1% of total exports)
- Iron, steel: $3.8 billion (6.8%)
- Fertilizers: $2.7 billion (4.7%)
- Organic chemicals: $2.6 billion (4.5%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: $1.7 billion (2.9%)
- Aluminum: $1.1 billion (2%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $526.6 million (0.9%)
- Ores, slag, ash: $390.5 million (0.7%)
- Ships, boats: $267.7 million (0.5%)
- Gems, precious metals: $267.2 million (0.5%)
Oman’s top 10 exports accounted for 95.7% of the overall value of its global shipments.
Fertilizers represent the fastest grower among the top 10 export categories, up by 132.2% from 2020 to 2021.
In second place for improving export sales were organic chemicals via a 79.1% upturn.
Oman’s shipments of mineral fuels including oil posted the third-fastest gain in value up by 76.1%, boosted by greater international sales of crude oil, petroleum gases and refined petroleum oils.
The leading decliner among Oman’s top 10 export categories was ores, slag and ash thanks to a -42.9% year-over-year reduction.
At the more granular four-digit Harmonized Tariff System code level, crude oil represents Oman’s most valuable exported product at 48.9% of the country’s total. In second place were petroleum gases (13.4%) trailed by processed petroleum oils (9.1%), nitrogenous fertilizers (4.7%), semi-finished products made from iron or non-alloy steel (4.5%), acyclic alcohols (3.1%), cyclic hydrocarbons (1.3%), iron ore reduced products (1.2%), unwrought aluminum (also 1.2%) and plastic plates, sheets or tape (0.9%).
Products Generating Oman’s Largest Trade Surpluses
Oman generated an estimated overall $37.5 billion trade surplus for 2021, up by 478% from $16.5 billion in black ink one year earlier.
The following types of Omani product shipments represent positive net exports or a trade balance surplus. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. In a nutshell, net exports represent the amount by which foreign spending on a home country’s goods or services exceeds or lags the home country’s spending on foreign goods or services.
- Mineral fuels including oil: US$39.6 billion (Up by 80.1% since 2020)
- Iron, steel: $3 billion (Up by 63.2%)
- Fertilizers: $2.5 billion (Up by 132.1%)
- Organic chemicals: $2 billion (Up by 166.4%)
- Plastics, plastic articles: $1.1 billion (Up by 1082.9%)
- Aluminum: $1.1 billion (Up by 76.1%)
- Salt, sulphur, stone, cement: $477.1 million (Up by 21.7%)
- Fish: $175.5 million (Down by -29.2%)
- Gems, precious metals: $164.7 million (Reversing a -$233 million deficit)
- Ships, boats: $133.1 million (Reversing a -$102.2 million deficit)
Oman has highly positive net exports in the international trade of petroleum oils (both crude and refined) as well as petroleum gases. In turn, these cashflows indicate Oman’s strong competitive advantages under the mineral fuels including oil product category.
Products Causing Oman’s Worst Trade Deficits
Below are exports from Oman that result in negative net exports or product trade balance deficits. These negative net exports reveal product categories where foreign spending on home country Oman’s goods trail Omani importer spending on foreign products.
- Vehicles: -US$2.2 billion (Down by -32.6% since 2020)
- Machinery including computers: -$1.7 billion (Down by -59.8%)
- Electrical machinery, equipment: -$1.1 billion (Down by -56.1%)
- Ores, slag, ash: -$1 billion (Up by 341%)
- Articles of iron or steel: -$670.8 million (Down by -46.6%)
- Pharmaceuticals: -$435.5 million (Up by 21.4%)
- Dairy, eggs, honey: -$413.9 million (Down by -16.5%)
- Furniture, bedding, lighting, signs, prefabricated buildings: -$391.5 million (Down by -14.2%)
- Optical, technical, medical apparatus: -$321.5 million (Down by -32.2%)
- Meat: -$288.4 million (Up by 33.2%)
Oman has highly negative net exports under the vehicles product category, which flipflopped positioned with machinery including computers in 2021.
Omani Export Companies
One Omani corporation ranks among Forbes Global 2000, namely Bank Muscat (regional bank).
Wikipedia also lists export-related companies from Oman. Selected examples are shown below.
- Oman LNG (oil, gas)
- Oman Oil Company (oil, gas)
- Oman Refinery Company (oil, gas)
- Omantel (telecommunications)
- Petroleum Development Oman (oil, gas)
- The Shaksy Group (diversified holding company)
In macroeconomic terms, Oman’s total exported goods represent 38.2% of its overall Gross Domestic Product for 2021 ($147.9 billion valued in Purchasing Power Parity US dollars). That 38.2% for exports to overall GDP in PPP for 2021 compares to 22.9% for 2020. Those percentages suggest a relatively increasing reliance on products sold on international markets for Oman’s total economic performance, albeit based on a short timeframe.
Another key indicator of a country’s economic performance is its unemployment rate. Oman’s unemployment rate averaged 3.1% in 2021, up from an average 2.9% for 2020 per Trading Economics.
Oman’s capital city is Muscat.
See also Crude Oil Exports by Country, UAE’s Top 10 Exports, Qatar’s Top Trading Partners and India’s Top Trading Partners
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Country Profiles. Accessed on July 21, 2022
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on July 21, 2022
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database (GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity). Accessed on July 21, 2022
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on July 21, 2022
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on July 21, 2022
Wikipedia, Gross domestic product. Accessed on July 21, 2022
Wikipedia, List of Companies of Oman. Accessed on July 21, 2022
Wikipedia, Oman. Accessed on July 21, 2022
Wikipedia, Purchasing power parity. Accessed on July 21, 2022
