Page 14 - MEOG Week 29 2021

MEOG TENDERS MEOG

Oman to kick off 2021 bid round

OMAN OMAN’S Ministry of Energy and Minerals last partner. A few months later, the company
week announced that it will begin accepting bids negotiated an extension to the first phase of the
for three hydrocarbon concessions next month exploration and production-sharing agreement
under its 2021 Licensing Round. (EPSA), but Frontier ceased reporting on Block
According to the ministry, the offshore Block 38 in 2016 and exploration efforts appear to have
23 and onshore Blocks 38 and 66 will be included halted.
in the bid round. Block 66 is located in the Rub’ Al-Khali basin
The blocks are the first that have been adver- in western Oman and lies along the border with
tised by Muscat since the ill-fated 2019 licensing Saudi Arabia.
round which took the best part of two years to Hungary’s MOL, in which Oman Oil Co.
find parties to take over five previously explored owns 7.1%, signed an EPSA for the 4,899-square
blocks carved out of Petroleum Development km concession in 2013, estimating reserves at
Oman’s (PDO) giant Block 6 concession. 200mn barrels and drilling exploratory wells
Block 23 is located to the east of Block 50, between 2014 and 2017, again without success.
where Masirah Oil Ltd recently completed a five- It had initially based optimism around Block
well drilling campaign as it seeks to develop the 66 partly on the presence of two producing
Yumna oilfield. fields in neighbouring Block 7, known as Abu
It was created by breaking down the much al Tabool. However, local operator Petrogas
larger Block 59 into Blocks 21, 22 and 23. allowed its EPSA for the block to expire in 2017,
It also borders the 90,000-square km Block with another Omani firm, Hydrocarbons Finder
52 in which Italy’s Eni and Qatar Petroleum (HCF), acquiring a new 15-year licence with the
have been carrying out exploratory drilling, so medium-term aim of ramping up output from
far without success. the current level of around 970 bpd to 5,000 bpd
The 17,425-square km Block 38, also known over five years.
as Mudayy, is located in the far south-west of the Output from the Sahmah, Ramlat and Rija
Sultanate in Dhofar Governorate, along the bor- fields in Block 7 is currently below 1,000 bpd,
der with Yemen. though HCF is “is implementing a strategy to
The licence is currently listed as ‘open’, though significantly enhance oil production”.
it was previously operated by Australian explorer According to its website, MOL is “in the
Frontier Resources, which in September 2015 process of relinquishing Block 66 after having
hired Moyes & Co. to help it find a farm-in obtained the approval of the Ministry”.™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 29 21•July•2021