Masirah Trough

Commentary

Oman is starting to reopen to smaller investors as exploration and development investment has reached a plateau point recently.

Updated

August 21, 2023

Location

Description

The MTB is located east of the Huqf uplift, parallel to the southern coast of Oman. western edge of the MTB is bound by an extensional fault system that is downthrown to the southeast. The MTB is limited to the east by a large wedge of sea floor sediments and oceanic crust, that is stacked as imbricate thrusts. These sediments/ophiolites were obducted onto the southern margin of the Arabian plate during the collision of the Indian/Afghan plates at the end of the Cretaceous. Most of the MTB is buried by sedimentary sequences, which has been subject to complex orogeny, which continued in to the Tertiary. Wells drilled in the MTB have demonstrated reservoir quality sequences in the Lower Cretaceous Natih and Shuaiba carbonates.

Summary

Recent drilling the MTB has been successful, which has raised its profile. With Oman also starting to make progress on opening up its acreage to outside investment.