Petrotel Signs EPSA To Explore Block 40 Offshore Musandam

Petrotel has been granted permit to explore Block 40 offshore Musandam Governorate, north of Oman. An Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement was signed by Dr Anil Chopra, chairman of PetroTel Oman Offshore LLC and Dr Mohammed bin Hamad al Rumhy, minister of oil and gas, Oman, giving the company license to explore for hydrocarbons in Block 40, news agency Oman Daily Observer reported.

The move comes in light of Oman trying to boost its oil and gas production by opening its doors to many international exploration firms. Block 40 has already been assessed once leading to oil no show. Petrotel intends to build on the already existing seismic data and evaluations with an investment of $35 million covering geological and geophysical studies, reprocessing of old seismic, and the acquisition of new 2D seismic followed by extensive drilling.

Al Jashmi in his comments to Observer said, "We understand there are some prospects. This block has been previously explored by some other companies, but they haven't been successful in (unearthing) any commercial discoveries.

"Nevertheless, there is a lot of data already acquired from the block. PetroTel will take the previous work and data and look at it in a different way. Along with the shootings of new seismic, we're hopeful they will identify new prospects and interpret the data in a better way."

Petrotel backed by its success in Block 17 where it is gearing up resources to drill its first well is optimistic of finding further untapped reserves in Musandam.

Dr Anil Chopra commented: "We have done very detailed geological mapping of Musandam onshore. So far we have found seven prospects onshore. Our teams have spent the first part of this year going to the field and doing very detailed geological work."

Asked if the area would see more investments from the company, Dr. Chopra said, 'We find Oman very attractive; so will continue to look at Oman."