I've found info to add regions to a custom layout in an Omega 4 subtheme. Regions need to be declared in theme.info, layout.inc and then printed/rendered in layout.tpl.php.
I've done all that and they don't appear on the page after cache clearing.
Note:
They do appear in /admin/structure/block (I can add blocks to the regions there but they aren't displayed on the actual pages).
The regions also appear if I edit the theme.info file, and templates/system/page.tpl.php file, and disable the use of layouts in omega 4 subtheme settings.
Code i used in following files: /theme.info
regions[footercolumnone] = Footer Column one
regions[footercolumntwo] = Footer Column two
regions[footercolumnthree] = Footer Column three
regions[footercolumnfour] = Footer Column four
/layouts/owr/owr-layout.tpl.php
<div class="l-footer-column1"><?php print render($page['footercolumnone']); ?></div>
<div class="l-footer-column2"><?php print render($page['footercolumntwo']); ?></div>
<div class="l-footer-column3"><?php print render($page['footercolumnthree']); ?></div>
<div class="l-footer-column4"><?php print render($page['footercolumnfour']); ?></div>
/layouts/owr/owr.layout.inc
regions[footercolumnone] = Footer Column one
regions[footercolumntwo] = Footer Column two
regions[footercolumnthree] = Footer Column three
regions[footercolumnfour] = Footer Column four