Oxy And Australia’s Oilex Awarded Oman’s Blocks 54 And 56
Occidental Petroleum announced on 4 April that it had been awarded a production-sharing contract area, Block 54, in southeastern Oman. Oxy (70%) will be operator, with partners Mitsui (15%) and Mubadala (15%). Mitsui will participate through its subsidiary Mitsui E&P Middle East, and Mubadala – the development and investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government – through Liwa Energy. Block 54 (approximately 5,620 sq km) lies immediately adjacent to Block 53 where Occidental operates the giant Mukhaizna field (MEES, 27 June 2005).
Australian upstream company Oilex announced on 31 March it had been awarded Block 56 as operator (25%) with Indian partners Gas Authority of India Limited (25%), Videocon Industries (25%), Hindustan Petroleum Corp (12.5%) and Bharat Petroleum Corp (12.5%). The block contains potential oil reserves of 4bn barrels according to a Fugro Robertson study. The consortium is also reported to have bid on Block 58. The awards of the onshore blocks 54 and 56 were made as part of the upstream bidding round that closed on 1 January (MEES, 15 August 2005). Oman last August invited bids for five upstream blocks (54, 55, 56, 57 and 58) – most of the acreage of which had been relinquished by Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).
