(LiveMint)
Civil strife in Yemen has forced Oil India Ltd (OIL) and partner Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL) to relinquish an oil block they won in the West Asian country in 2009, the OIL annual report said.“All the works are under suspension, at present, due to the deteriorating political and security situation in Yemen. All partners have decided to relinquish the block,” the report said.
Oil India, Indian Oil and other members of an international consortium led by Medco Energi of Indonesia were awarded Yemen’s exploration block-82 in 2006. A production sharing agreement was signed in May 2008 and a presidential decree was granted in March 2009.The Oil India report explained how work came to a halt.
“Acquisitions and processing of 236.5 kilometres of 3D seismic and 133.5km of 2D seismic has been completed. However, completion of the work programme was delayed due to frequent disturbances at the site. All the works are under suspension, at present, due to the deteriorating political and security situation in Yemen,” the company said.
