Total Pulls Out of Oman Offshore Exploration Block

French oil and gas giant Total has pulled out of a deepwater block in offshore Oman after failing to make commercially attractive discoveries, a senior Omani official told reporters on Monday.

Nasser Al Aufi, undersecretary at the Ministry of Oil and Gas, did not provide details regarding Total's decision.

The company signed an exploration and production-sharing agreement in December 2013 for Block 41, which lies off the Omani coast northwest of Muscat and covers almost 24,000 square kilometres of seabed with depths of up to 3,000 metres.

Aufi also said that last year Hungarian oil group MOL had pulled out from Block 34, and Norwegian oil firm DNO from Block 31.