The Ministry of Oil and Gas signed a new exploration and production sharing agreement (EPSA) on Saturday with MOL Oman Ltd for Block 66 located south of Dhofar.
The agreement was signed by H E Dr Mohammed bin Hamad al Rumhi, Minister of Oil and Gas, and Sandor Fasimon, executive vice president of exploration and production, MOL Group, and Dr George Bacsa, vice president of corporate business development, MOL Group.
Block 66 covers an area of 4,898sq km where the Hungarian firm's operations in the sultanate will have the right to explore, develop and produce oil and gas resources.
The commitments of the company under the agreement are to reprocess old seismic data, acquire new 2D and 3D seismic data and drill exploration wells during the exploration periods.
Speaking to reporters after signing the agreement, Fasimon said that the company is planning to invest US$30mn for exploration in Block 66.
He said, "We are planning to drill a minimum of two wells and we hope more wells will be drilled after the discovery in the field during the development. The estimated oil reserves in the field are around 200mn barrels."
MOL Oman already operates in Block 43B, in Dhahirah, where the company expects to start drilling in October this year.
"We had taken Block 43B in 2006. We believe that natural gas can be found there.
The drilling will start in October and we probably will have results in the first half of next year.
We have spent around US$60mn in Block 43B so far," Fasimon said.
He added that MOL Group is currently producing 120,000 barrels of oil per day. The company's oil assets are mainly in central and eastern Europe, Russia, Pakistan and the Kurdish region in Iraq.
© Muscat Daily 2012
