Oman this week signed an E&P agreement with local firm Majan Energy, which will try to crack Block 71, home of the ultra-heavy 10°API Habhab field. The field has long been ignored by former custodian, Shell-led Petroleum Development Oman (PDO).

Majan, itself a subsidiary of local services firm Hema Energy, is a newcomer to the upstream. But the deal is in line with the sultanate’s recent upstream strategy. While large players have signed on to appraise unconventional gas plays in the country’s north (MEES, 5 February), smaller firms have taken interests in underexplored acreage in the periphery. Sweden’s Tethys Oil being chief among them (MEES, 12 February). (CONTINUED - 362 WORDS)