The Minister of Oil, Gas, and Minerals Khalid Bahah has reportedly said that several offshore blocks were promising, as the country aims to boost oil production.

Australia already has two players, Oil Search and Arc Energy, involved in exploration in the Middle Eastern country.

The partners recently abandoned an onshore well that failed to encounter commercial quantities of hydrocarbons.

Oil Search announced last March that it planned to resume exploration of its 40% held and operated offshore Block 15 thought to contain commercial quantities of oil.

However a two-well drilling program undertaken early this year was unsuccessful, with both plugged and abandoned as dry holes. Data from the wells is currently being reviewed.

Block 15 is one of only two offshore blocks to have been awarded by the Yemen Ministry to date. Water depths range from 100 metres to 800 metres.

"Oil Search’s decision to acquire the block was based on the reprocessing of the old Agip seismic data which demonstrated the existence of a number of new and untested play types within the block," it said on its website.

"This factor coupled with the evidence of a working petroleum system made the block an attractive exploration opportunity."

Oil Search's partners are KUFPEC, the Yemen Oil Company, which is carried through the exploration phase, and Emirates Exploration and Oil Field development.

The blocks up for competitive bidding are: Block 22 (Kamaran), block 23 (Hodeida), block 46 (South Belhaf), block 55 (Midi), block 61 (south Masna’ah), block 62 (Okub), block 63 (South Nashtun), block 96 (Ra’s Mume), block 94 (Abd Al-Kuri), block 95 (Samhah), block 96 (South Ra’s Mume).