Bahrain tenders get the green light
Posted: 04 February 2008
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Bahrain’s consultative council has approved the two tenders for exploration of oil and gas off the kingdom’s shores, backing a speedy process to step up its exploration efforts.
US major Occidental (Oxy) and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production have been awarded exploration rights by Bahrain in the offshore round in October last year.
The approval came 13 days after parliament had agreed for the tenders, it was rushed next to the Shura Council to get the deal moving, Bahraini media reported.
Consultative body Shura Council with the consent of parliament is responsible for approval of the state’s tenders in Bahrain.
“We were keen on speeding up both tenders, ensuring they didn’t get delayed, since they involve oil investments worth billions of dinars,” Khalid Al Maskati, chairman Council Financial and Economic Affairs Committee, was quoted as saying.
Parliament chairman Khalifa Al Dhahrani urgently referred the tenders to the council, as the government was trying to seal the deal. The tenders will now be ratified by His Majesty King Hamad, the report said, without citing a specific date.
Bapco chief executive Abdulkarim Al Sayed said three exploration blocks had been awarded which include blocks two, three and four; while no interest was shown in block one.
“Block one, which is in the north, is not allocated, so it remains with us and we can in future put it out for bidding again,” Al Sayed was quoted as saying.
Oxy won exploration rights for two blocks and PTT will operate Block 2, located offshore in the north of Bahrain which covers about 2,228 square kilometres.
In 2006, Bahrain produced about 35,000 bbpd of crude oil. Its proven oil reserves stood at about 125 million barrels as of January 2007. Over the years, Bahrain has been slow to explore for oil in its offshore waters.
Unlike most GCC-countries, Bahrain imports about 225,000 bbpd of Arab Light crude oil from Saudi Arabia, for which it shares production via a subsea pipeline linking the two countries.
Bahrain, where the first oil field in the Gulf was developed, aims to encourage foreign investment in the upstream sector and possibly to step up exploration efforts to revive its former glory. |
