Reliance bags oil/gas block in Oman

Reliance Industries has bagged a deepsea oil and gas block in the Gulf of Oman, and is looking for oil assets in Qatar, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

"We have got one deep water block in Oman. The block is believed to hold crude oil and condensate reserves," a top official said today.

Oman had put three deep water blocks for bidding, and Reliance has bagged one of them. The official refused to give details.

This is the second oil and gas block Reliance has acquired outside India. It holds a 20% stake in the exploration Block 9 in Yemen where a significant oil discovery has already been made.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance, along with his key aides Nikhil Meswani, P M S Prasad and Atul Chandra, hosted a private dinner for visiting Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali Al Niami yesterday evening.

The Reliance top brass is believed to have conveyed to the Saudi Arabian minister the group's interest in development of oilfields in the world's largest crude oil producing country.

Reliance, which operates a 33 million tonne per annum capacity refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat, has ventured into oil and gas exploration in a big way. It has already struck huge gas reserves at two fields in Bay of Bengal, and is now scouting for assets overseas.