GAIL (India) Ltd and its partners on Wednesday signed the Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement with government of Oman for Block 56 in Muscat.
The consortium consisting of GAIL, Oilex Australia, Videocon, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd was awarded Block No 56 in Oman for exploration and production of hydrocarbons, a GAIL release said.
GAIL, Oilex and Videocon hold 25 per cent interest each in the consortium. Oilex Australia are the operators.
"The Block 56 (adjacent to producing fields) is an onshore block located in the South Oman Salt Basin area located in the eastern flank covers an area of 5,809 square kilometers," the release said, adding drilling is to begin in 2007.
Oman had in January offered five blocks (Block 54,55,56,57 and Block 58) in the fringes of the south Oman salt Basin under competitive bidding round. The blocks 54, 55 and 56 were in the eastern flank where as block 57 and 58 are in the western flank.
"As per the commitment by consortium under the EPSA, the work will commence with reprocessing of existing seismic data followed by acquisition of 2D and 3D seismic in last quarter of 2006, depending on availability of seismic contractors.
Drilling activity in the block is expected to start some time in the first half of 2007," the release added.
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