Yemen plans to offer 15 offshore oil exploration blocks to international firms attending the oil and gas promoting conference due in October in Sanaa, the country's Oil and Minerals Minister Ameer Aidarous said Thursday.

The promoting conference, which is the third of its kind, is scheduled to be held in Sanaa during Oct. 18 to 19, state news agency Saba quoted Aidarous as saying.

The conference, considered to be the biggest economic event for promoting Yemen's offshore oil exploration blocks, has already attracted many major international oil firms around the world, said the report.

Last month, the Yemeni Oil and Minerals Ministry said recent explorations in many oil sectors showed positive indications about availability of oil and gas in the south and east of the country.

"These indicators on the availability of large quantities of gas spur the ministry to accelerate preparing an attachment accord to the previous agreements with the foreign oil companies operating in these sectors," Aidarous said in remarks to state media.

According to the minister, the recent discoveries of large quantities of gas were located in southeast provinces of Hadramout and Shabwa and in the northeast province of Marib.