Tethys Oil to advance exploration of Oman hydrocarbon blocks

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MUSCAT: Swedish energy firm Tethys Oil is banking on commercial success in two operated Oil & Gas blocks this year in a bid to open up new production streams from its exploration activities in the Sultanate of Oman.

The international upstream firm, whose revenues have hitherto come predominantly from its non-operated Blocks 3&4 concession in the east of Oman, has presently its sights on the hydrocarbon potential of Block 56 in the southeast, and Block 49 and Block 58 in Dhofar Governorate.

In Block 58, a 4,557 km2 concession straddling the western flank of the prolific South Oman Salt Basin, Tethys Oil plans to commence the drilling of an exploration well, Kunooz-1, in Q2 of this year, targeting a prospect in the Fahd South area of the license.

“Targeting more than 100 mmbo (million barrels of oil) of unrisked prospective resources, a success on Block 58 would of course dwarf anything else we are currently doing,” commented Tethys Oil Managing Director Magnus Nordin in the company’s newly published 2023 Annual Report.

Awarded in 2020 with a 100% interest share, Block 58 has several high-potential prospects in the Fahd and South Lahan areas of the concession, given their adjacency to Block 6’s Harweel cluster of PDO. Following the evaluation of 2D and 3D seismic data, the block has shown potential, with previously drilled wells having encountered hydrocarbon shows and multiple play concepts.

Another prospect that is being keenly studied is the South Lahan area, which has been the subject of 3D seismic data processing and interpretation. This exercise has yielded several drillable prospects, said Tethys Oil, added: “The complete prospect portfolio for South Lahan will be peer reviewed in early 2024.” In anticipation of commercial success in the block, Tethys Oil has begun exploring a farm-out of part of its share in the concession. “Constructive discussions are currently ongoing with a select group of companies which could result in a farm-out,” the energy firm noted.

In Block 56, the company plans to build on the success of an Extended Well Test (EWT) centring on the Al Jumd discovery in the concession. Commencing in April last year, the ETW continued until the end of September helping establishing the production capability and resource base of the Al Jumd discovery. A total of four wells were pressed into operation as part of the EWT, yielding oil flows varying from 150 to 700 bpd. Total output during the EWT amounted to a promising 60,369 barrels.

Together with the testing of two other exploration wells Menna-1 and Sarha-3, planned in the early part of 2024, Tethys Oil plans to draw up an inventory of prospects and leads in the block. ”With the inventory in place and based on the results of the performed well tests, Tethys Oil aims to finalise a field development plan and bring the block to commercialisation in 2024,” it added.

In Block 49, the third of Tethys Oil’s operated assets in Oman, the company is pressing ahead with plans for a retest of its inconclusive Thameen-1 well drilled in 2021. Logs from the well indicated a 30-metre thick hydrocarbon bearing zone which, when tested, failed to result in hydrocarbon flows to the surface.

But subsequent analysis of the samples suggest that the reservoir rock is tight and virtually impermeable despite having good porosity. Further studies suggest that hydrocarbons could flow if the reservoir rock is artificially fractured, said Tethys Oil.

“Successfully flowing hydrocarbons to surface through this operation would turn the inconclusive Thameen-1 well into a discovery and thus determine the Company’s further course of action in relation to a second exploration phase,” it stated.