UNI

Muscat, Jun 30: A consortium of four Indian companies has succeeded in bidding for exploring Oman's oil-bearing regions with the award of concessions costing 340 million dollars.

The deal was signed in the presence of Minister of Oil and Gas, Sultanate of Oman, Dr Mohammed bin Hamed Al-Rumhy, an official statement said yesterday.

The consortium comprising GAIL, Oilex Australia, Videocon, HPCL and BPCL has been awarded Block No 56 in Oman for exploration and production of hydrocarbons. GAIL, Oilex and Videocon have 25 per cent share participating interest each in the consortium. Oilex Australia are the operators.

''The initial investment will be 30 million dollars and we are planning to drill a minimum of 11 wells,'' Videocon Industries Ltd Director S Padmanabhan said.

We have estimated about 150 million to 160 million barrels of oil in the block and there is some potential for gas condensates.

But it is more likely to be an oil bearing block, he added.

The winning companies will be spending more than 346 million dollars for the exploratory activities during the period of the contract and Oman will not be responsible for any risks in the investment during the period of the agreement.

For the first time in Oman's history almost all of its oil-bearing regions have been given out under the exploration, production and sharing agreements (EPSA).

Indian companies have forayed into the West Asia to explore potential oil reserves with the signing of the agreement.