Abu Dhabi offering three offshore blocks in second licence round
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has issued details of five blocks offered under Abu Dhabi’s second licensing bid round.
Three are offshore and two are onshore, and the blocks cover an area of about 34,000 square kilometres (13,127 square miles).
The successful bidders will enter into agreements granting exploration rights. Assuming they achieve their defined targets in the exploration phase, they will be given the opportunity to develop and produce any discoveries with ADNOC, under terms set out in the bidding package.
Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO, said: “The launch of Abu Dhabi’s second licensing bid round builds on the momentum of the first and very successful competitive bid round. It demonstrates how ADNOC’s expanded approach to partnerships is enabling us to utilise value-add partnerships and smart technologies to drive new commercial opportunities and efficiently accelerate the exploration and development of Abu Dhabi’s untapped resources.
“This second bid round provides the next major opportunity for both new and existing partners… to join us in further unlocking Abu Dhabi’s substantial hydrocarbon resources in the UAE’s trusted and reliable investment environment. It signals both Abu Dhabi’s and ADNOC’s ongoing drive to realize the potential of our resource base to remain a long-term and reliable energy provider to the world.”
Offshore Block 3 is, area-wise, the largest block offered by Abu Dhabi in both the 2018 and 2019 block bid rounds, with an area of more than 11,000 square kilometres (4,247 square miles). In addition, it overlaps, in certain geographical areas, with existing concessions already granted to international oil companies. So, it will be awarded to explore exclusively for potential gas in deep geological formations and potential oil in various formations, outside the existing concession areas.
Based on petroleum system studies, seismic surveys, exploration and appraisal wells data, estimates suggest the blocks in the second bid round 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 geographical area of the second bid round blocks, there are 290 targeted reservoirs from 92 prospects and leads.
More information on the blocks is available at www.adnoc.ae/Block-Bid. The website also contains details of a roadshow, to be held in Abu Dhabi, in which technical and commercial information on the new blocks will be provided.
The closing date for submitting bids will be at the end of November 2019.
Source: Offshore Magazine