Is this hole behind my oil pump gear normal?

[50MercMetalHead]

So, I’m looking at my block trying to understand and plan for the 95% mod and I noticed an interesting hole behind the oil pump drive gear. From what I can see, it just dumps straight back into the crankcase. I did some googling to try to see if other blocks had this hole and the one picture I saw showed one in that spot, but it was much different, like a drilled hole instead of the hole in my block which looks like it’s a chunk missing. If it matters, this is a 49-53 8CM. Thanks in advance.