Oman puts new onshore and offshore acreage on offer

The Oman Ministry of Oil & Gas has put four blocks up for grabs in the 2016 licensing round.

The Ministry said on Wednesday that the blocks offered as part of the Oman Bid Round 2016 are Block 30, Block 31, Block 49, and Block 52.

Bid submission deadline for Block 30 has already closed with the results expected on Thursday.

The submission deadline for blocks 31 and 49 is December 29, 2016, with the results announcement planned for January 31, 2017.

Block 52 , also known as Juzor Al Hallaniyyat, is the only offshore block on offer in the 2016 licensing round. It is a 90,760 square-kilometer area located off the southern part of Oman. Bid submission deadline for this block is February 15, 2017, with results expected on March 15, 2017.

The block was previously owned by the Sun Oil Company, Amoco, Petroleum Development Oman, and Circle Oil. Also, there are three wells in the block, namely, Sawqrah Bay South-1, Kuria Muria-1, and Sawqrah Bay-1 also called Sawquirah Bay-1.

In Block 50, adjacent to this block’s northern boundary, a major discovery was made by Masirah Oil in 2014.

Furthermore, the Ministry said that a new online service, launched in October 2015, enables interested parties to access and evaluate data relating to all four blocks on offer entirely over the internet.

The system offers subscribers the ability to access the full range of data from any location as well as high-quality raw data, additional ready-to-use interpretation projects, the ministry said.