UAE – Mubasher: The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) on Wednesday announced, as part of Abu Dhabi’s block licensing strategy and on behalf of the Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC), the second bid round of five new geographical oil and gas blocks open for bidding for both conventional and unconventional resources.
Abu Dhabi’s five new blocks open for bidding, three of which are offshore and two onshore, are known as Offshore Block 3, Offshore Block 4, Offshore Block 5, Onshore Block 5 and Onshore Block 2, ADNOC said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The successful bidders will enter into agreements granting them exploration rights and, provided that defined targets are achieved in the exploration phase, will be granted the opportunity to develop and produce any discoveries, under terms that will be set out in the bid package,” the state-run oil giant added.
The five blocks comprise an area of approximately 34,000 square kilometres (km2).
Starting the second round follows the conclusion of the first one in March 2019, which covered an area of approximately 30,000 km2 and generated significant interest from prospective international bidders.
The second phase offers new areas with significant amounts of conventional and unconventional oil and gas potential, the statement said.
However, one of the offered blocks, Offshore Block 3, is considered the largest block offered by Abu Dhabi in both the 2018 and 2019 block bid rounds, with an area of more than 11,000 km2.
“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, in line with the leadership’s directives,” Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO, said.
He added that the second bid signals both Abu Dhabi’s and ADNOC’s ongoing drive to realise the potential of our resource base to remain a long-term and reliable energy provider to the world.
ADNOC noted that the closing date for the receipt of bids will be at the end of November 2019, after which ADNOC will evaluate the bids, the statement highlighted.
