Norway’s DNO International has expanded its Middle East operations winning the operatorship of Yemen’s onshore Block 84, as well as signing a farm-in agreement for the onshore Block 36 in Oman.

DNO was selected by Yemen’s Oil & Minerals Ministry to take the operatorship of Block 84, with a 59.5 per cent interest, along with Turkey’s Dogan Enerji Yatirimlari Sanayi ve Ticaret, which holds a 25.5 per cent stake, according to a 10 July statement.

State-owned Yemen Oil and Gas Corporation holds the remaining 15 per cent interest. The partners will acquire new 3D seismic data and drill two exploration wells during the first exploration period. Block 84 covers a surface area of 731 square kilometres in the Masila-Seiyun Basin. DNO already holds stakes in five other Yemeni blocks.

In Oman, DNO’s farm-in agreement provides for the transfer of a 75 per cent stake in Block 36 from Canada’s Allied Petroleum Exploration. It will assume operatorship and fund the reprocessing of existing data and the acquisition of new 2D seismic data, along with drilling of two exploration wells. Block 36 covers 18,000-sq km block in the Rub al-Khali basin.