Oman is offering four blocks for oil and gas drilling - the northwestern 30 and 31 as well as the southern 49 and 52, which were abandoned last year by international exploration firms.

The non-Opec Gulf state’s oil and gas ministry said on October 12 that bidding would take place between October 23, 2016 and February 15, 2017.

Block 30, is a 1,185 square kilometre area located in the Omani interior and straddles the Hajar mountains. It comprises the Nadir, Al Sahwa and Hafar as well as the Hamrat Duru gas fields. The neighbouring Block 31, also known as the Sunainah North Block stretches across 8,526 square kilometres. They were owned by Norwegian exploration and production company DNO, which pulled out in August 2015, citing its second quarter loss and a “period of consolidation and rationalisation underway across its international portfolio.

The firm, which is 40 per cent owned by UAE based Ras al-Khaimah Petroleum currently operates the offshore Block 8 with LG International and onshore Block 36 with Canadian firm Allied Petroleum Exploration.

The larger southern blocks were owned by Ireland-based Circle Oil. The Irish exploration and production company in March 2015, abandoned Shisr 1 well in the 15,439 square kilometre Block 49, located on the border with Saudi Arabia citing “drilling difficulties”.

In June 2015, it abandoned altogether Block 49 as well as the 90,760 square km offshore Block 52 and proceeded to write off its Omani investments, citing “unwillingness to sole-risk shallow water wells” and added it would “no longer bid for acreage in the country,” in a statement released with its 2014 financial statements.

Low oil prices have been particularly hard on profitability of exploration firms operating in Oman, where fiscal breakeven price of oil is around $110 a barrel - the second highest, after Bahrain in the GCC.