The Exhibition Centre was first opened on November 1979. After extensive remodelling, it was re-opened in November 1995 as a "Gift to Nation" to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the reign of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said. In 2000 the planetarium was built as an annex to the Exhibition Centre, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of His Majesty's reign.

Both the Exhibition Centre and the planetarium were originally conceived and built — and are being run — by Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), the leading oil and gas exploration and production company in the Sultanate.

The six permanent displays of the Oil & Gas Exhibition Centre are designed to explain how crude oil and natural gas are formed underground as well as how they are then found, brought to the surface, delivered to processing facilities and how the end products are ultimately used. They have been designed so that visitors can interact with them by means of computers, working models and videos. Each display has a theme and they are ordered chronologically starting with origin followed by quest, discovery, production, transport and products.

We hope you will find the Oil & Gas and Exhibition Centre both informative and enjoyable.

Oman's crude oil and natural gas were formed some 550 million years ago, making them some of the oldest in the world.

You will see how oil and gas were formed from layers of organic matter deposited in oceans and lakes millions of years ago. You can learn a little of Oman's geological history: how the Arabian land mass moved over the surface of the globe from near the south pole to the equator, how the movement of the earth's plates led to the formation of mountains and raised the sea bed to form land, and how the buckling of the rock layers trapped the oil and gas in reservoirs.

The search for oil and gas trapped at great depths under the ground is a complex and difficult task.

Several of the techniques used to unlock the secrets of rocks are described and demonstrated in detail. You will see how sound waves and powerful computers are used to create sophisticated maps of underground rock structures, how satellites can give us different views of the earth and how geologists are able to interpret this and other information to locate the source rocks from which oil and gas arise as well as the reservoir rocks where they now lie trapped. You can also see how fossils were formed millions of years ago and why their identification is so important in the search for oil and gas.

Once the geologist thinks that there may be oil and gas in a particular place, the next step is to drill an exploration well to discover whether they are indeed present and, if so, in what quantity and of what quality.

You will be shown some of the techniques and tools needed to drill a well. With the aid of working models, computer graphics and real hardware from the oilfields of Oman, we hope to give you an idea of how complex the seemingly simple operation of making a deep hole in the ground really is. By the time you leave you will know what an oilman means when he refers to 'mud', 'drillstring' and 'blowout preventor', and you will be able to imagine the scale of a typical oil or gas well.

Once the oil and gas have been discovered, they have to be produced from a well. For this to be done both efficiently and safely, the well has to be engineered to suit the circumstances.

You will be shown how oil and gas are extracted from underground reservoirs, how safety is ensured during their production, and how they are separated from one another and processed in the field before they are transported to the coast. You will learn that this is a business where high technology and experience count: complex production stations must be constructed in the desert, thousands of wells must be monitored and maintained, and the reservoirs of oil and gas themselves must be cared for so that they deliver as much of their wealth as possible.

Moving more than 630,000 barrels of oil a day and loading tankers 24 hours a day, every day of the year, requires great care and expertise if the environment is to be protected.

PDO is responsible for thousands of kilometres of pipeline that carry oil, gas and waste water. You will see where the pipelines are, find out how they are maintained and monitored, and — if you learn the rules of the game — launch a 'pig' down a pipe. You will also learn how crude oil, once it reaches the coast, is exported in seagoing tankers to contries in the Far East such as China Japan and Korea. Here too you can try your hand at a game: load a tanker, but take care not to sink it in the process!

Almost everything we do in our daily lives involves some product made from oil: motor fuels, plastics and lubricants — to name just a few. And we burn gas to generate electricity and cook our food.

You will be shown how crude oil is turned into gasoline and diesel for vehicles and bitumen for roads. You will learn just how much oil and gas produces, and you will take a look at the future of the Sultanate's gas industry. Oil and gas have been the keystone of Oman's Renaissance, and they will remain so for many years to come.

The Exhibition Centre is located at the end of the Seih Al Maleh Street, at the right hand just before the PDO gate 2 – Al-Qurum, Muscut.