Abu Dhabi Launches First-Ever Competitive Oil & Gas Bid Round

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) is offering six oil and gas blocks for bidding in a first-ever competitive exploration and production bid round as part of its strategy to expand strategic partnerships in all business areas.

ADNOC unveiled on Tuesday details about the competitive bid round in which companies are invited to register to bid on six blocks—two offshore and four onshore—until October this year.

Based on data compiled from petroleum studies, seismic surveys, log files, and core samples from hundreds of appraisal wells, “estimates suggest these new blocks hold multiple billion barrels of oil and multiple trillion cubic feet of natural gas,” the company said today.

There are 310 targeted reservoirs from 110 prospects and leads in the area of the six blocks, some of which already have discoveries, ADNOC said, adding that some of the blocks in the competitive bid also “contain significant unconventional resource potential.”

ADNOC will start a global road show of technical and commercial information on the new blocks in Abu Dhabi on April 23, 2018. After the road show, bidders will be invited to submit expressions of interest, in which they will be able to buy data on the six blocks, the Abu Dhabi company said. ADNOC and the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) plan to announce the first results of this bid round before the end of this year.

Commenting on the first competitive bid round, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO, said:

“This approach is central to our expanded partnership strategy, which aims to introduce new opportunities as we broaden and diversify our partnership base.”

Apart from the competitive bid round, ADNOC has recently signed concession deals for producing fields under its strategy to boost strategic partnerships with international oil companies. Last month, France’s Total signed 40-year concession agreements to enter two offshore fields for US$1.45 billion, and Italy’s Eni also gained access to two offshore producing concessions for 40 years and US$875 million. Austria’s OMV will acquire a 20-percent stake in two offshore oil concessions for US$1.5 billion, and the deal is expected to be signed by the end of this month.

News Source: Link