OMAN to award 2 oil blocks to foreign firms

Oman is planning to award two more onshore oil blocks to foreign firms on a production-sharing basis, a senior Omani energy ministry official said.

'These open concession areas are close to Petroleum Development Oman's (PDO) concession area at Marmul in southern Oman,' Khalifa bin Mubarak al Hinai, advisor to the Ministry of Oil and Gas, said on the sidelines of a conference.

Oman is already due to announce production-sharing agreements on three oil blocks in the next couple of weeks, with Russian, Ukranian and Indian firms short-listed for those.

Last year, it awarded seven oil blocks -- including five sites held by majority state-owned PDO -- to multinational oil firms for development.

'We will soon award three blocks for development. Quite a few companies are shortlisted... The concession agreement will be signed within two weeks,' Hinai said, referring to offshore blocks 41 and 59 and onshore block 39.

Oman, which has been trying to beat an output fall that began in 2001, has said it will spend $10 billion in the next five years to boost oil output to 900,000 barrels per day and natural gas production to 70-80 million cubic meters per day.

The hydrocarbon sector accounts for 80 per cent of Oman's export earnings and 40 percent of its gross domestic product.