Abu Dhabi Launches Maiden Bid Round
State owned Adnoc April 10 announced the details of its first-ever competitive exploration and production bid round for six oil and gas blocks. Adnoc CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber last month said that this was coming soon.
The successful bidders will enter into agreements granting exploration rights and, if defined targets are achieved in the exploration phase, be granted the opportunity to develop and produce any discoveries with Adnoc under terms that will be set out in the bidding package, Adnoc said.
Al Jaber said: “The launch of these large new licensing blocks is an important step for Abu Dhabi and Adnoc as we develop and apply new strategies to realise the full potential of our resources, maximise value through competitive bidding and accelerate the exploration and development of new commercial opportunities.”
According to Adnoc, the new blocks hold “multiple billion barrels of oil and multiple trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Some of the blocks already have discoveries, and within the combined area there are 310 targeted reservoirs from 110 prospects and leads. In addition to the country’s conventional oil and gas accumulations, some of the offered blocks also contain significant unconventional resource potential.”
The six blocks open for bidding, two of which are offshore and four are onshore, cover an area of between 2,500 and 6,300 km2. In total, Abu Dhabi’s six blocks comprise an area of almost 30,000 km2, according to Adnoc.
The closing date for the receipt of bids will be in October, after which Adnoc will evaluate the bids. The first bid round is planned to conclude this year.