Iraq Oil Ministry Qualifies 41 International Firms for New Bid Round

- Iraq Oil Ministry Qualifies 41 International Firms for New Bid Round

Monday, August 08, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
AMMAN
by Hassan Hafidh

The Iraqi oil ministry has qualified some 41 international companies to compete for 12 exploration blocks in the next bidding round which is scheduled to be held in January, the ministry said in statement Monday.

Iraq, which sits on the world's third largest oil reserves, has estimated that the new blocks would add some 10 billion barrels of oil to Iraq's current reserves of 143 billion barrels, and some 29 trillion cubic feet of gas to its current reserves of 112.6 trillion cubic feet.

Among the companies qualified by the ministry for the licensing auction are some of the world's oil majors such as BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Lukoil, Total, China National Petroleum Corp., or CNPC, Eni, Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) and Chevron.

The list also includes nine Japanese firms. They are, among others, INPEX, Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp., or JOGMEC, Mitsui Oil Exploration Co. Ltd, JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp., or JX-NOEX, Itochu, Mitsubishi, and Japan Petroleum exploration Co. Ltd, known as Japex.

Two Arab companies are listed by the ministry. They are Mubadala Oil & Gas of the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait Energy of Kuwait.

The ministry said the chosen companies are among 50 firms who submitted applications and documents to take part in the bidding round, scheduled to be held in January next year.

Many of the listed companies have won deals to upgrade Iraq's vast oil and gas fields. Baghdad has held three bidding rounds in the past two years to auction off 15 of the country's most prized oil and gas fields.

Three of the announced blocks are located in the western Anbar province while two others are shared by the Anbar, Nineveh and Najaf governorates. The sixth is in Nineveh governorate in northern Iraq. These six are believed to contain gas resources, oil ministry officials said.

The remaining five blocks, believed to contain crude oil resources, are located in other governorates including Basra, Dhi Qar (Nassiriyah), Muthanna (Samawa), Babil, Najaf, Wasit and Diyala provinces, the officials said.

The size of the blocks range from 5,500 square kilometers to 9,000 square kilometers, they added.

Iraq needs to boost gas production and build more gas-fired power plants to increase its power output, currently at 6,500 megawatts, which represent less than half the country's needs.

Although international companies would prefer production-sharing contracts for exploration blocks, Iraqi oil officials said the deals would be based on a service contract, which means winning companies will be paid a flat fee for their services rather than be given a share in the resources. But it would be slightly different from the 20-year service contract offered in the previous three bidding rounds, they said.

Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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Several Firms Show Interest in New Iraq Oil Bidding Round

- Several Firms Show Interest in New Iraq Oil Bidding Round

Thursday, July 07, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
AMMAN
by Hassan Hafidh

Several international companies have submitted documents to the Iraqi oil ministry to qualify them to take part in the country's fourth oil and gas licensing auction scheduled for January, one document and persons close to the ministry said Thursday.

According to people who saw a recent document issued by the oil ministry, at least 27 international companies have paid fees to the ministry to qualify them to take part in the bidding round to auction 12 exploration blocks located in various parts of Iraq.

"The ministry is studying documents of these companies and a list of pre-qualified companies is expected to be issued within the next two weeks," a ministry official, who asked not to be name for security reasons, said.

Among the companies mentioned on the oil ministry's list that want to take part in the auction are Chevron, ONGC Videsh Ltd., Vitol Holding B.V., GulfSands Petroleum, Enel Energia, Petrol Resources PLC, TNK-BP, and Dana Petroleum.

The list also includes six Japanese firms. They are INPEX, Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp., or JOGMEC, Mitsui Oil Exploration, JX Nippon O&G, or JX-NOEX, Itochu and Toyota Tsusho.

The only Arab company in the list is Mubadala Oil & Gas of the United Arab Emirates.

Iraq, which sits on the world's third largest oil reserves, has held three bidding rounds in the past two years to auction off 15 of the country's most prized oil and gas fields.

Three of the announced blocks are located in the western Anbar province while two others are shared by the Anbar, Nineveh and Najaf governorates. The sixth is in Nineveh governorate in northern Iraq. These six are believed to contain gas resources, oil ministry officials said.

The remaining five blocks, believed to contain crude oil resources, are located in other governorates including Basra, Dhi Qar (Nassiriyah), Muthanna (Samawa), Babil, Najaf, Wasit and Diyala provinces, the officials said.

The size of the blocks range from 5,500 square kilometers to 9,000 square kilometers, they added.

Iraq needs to boost gas production and build more gas-fired power plants to increase its power output, currently at 6,500 megawatts, which represent less than half the country's needs.

Although international companies would prefer production-sharing contracts for exploration blocks, Iraqi oil officials said the deals would be based on a service contract, which means winning companies will be paid a flat fee for their services rather than be given a share in the resources. But it would be slightly different from the 20-year service contract offered in the previous three bidding rounds, they said.

"The remuneration fee for each produced barrel or equivalent in the exploration contracts is expected to be more than that in the awarded oil fields," one official said.


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Key Agency to Miss Next Round of Tests

Key Agency to Miss Next Round of Tests

Thursday, April 21, 2011
Houston Chronicle
by Jennifer A. Dlouhy

Testing is set to resume next week on the blowout preventer that failed to stop gushing oil at BP's Macondo well, but an independent federal agency that has been probing the disaster will not be permitted to participate.

Under a federal judge's ruling, the only witnesses allowed during the examination at a NASA facility in New Orleans will be representatives of the Justice Department, oil spill victims in a broad class-action lawsuit and three companies linked to the disaster.

That shuts the door to the Chemical Safety Board, the latest setback for the U.S. agency that has been trying to get a foothold in investigating the spill since lawmakers requested the board's involvement last year.

A four-month probe of the blowout preventer concluded that after surging oil and gas pushed drill pipe askew, the device's powerful shear rams were unable to completely sever the drill pipe and seal the well.

On March 25, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier granted BP's request for additional tests, which will be conducted by the same forensic analysis firm that examined the blowout preventer at the Michoud NASA facility from November through February.

Although the CSB was part of a "technical working group" that guided that testing, Barbier's ruling last week excluded the board -- along with anyone else not party to oil spill litigation -- from the additional analysis.

The ruling was not released, but it was described by several people with know-ledge of the case and connections to the oil spill litigation that Barbier is overseeing.

The CSB has limited recourses to gain access now, since it does not have independent litigating authority like other federal agencies.

The CSB has limited recourses to gain access now, since it does not have independent litigating authority like other federal agencies.

Justice Department

Instead, it is up to the Justice Department whether to enforce CSB subpoenas or fight for its access in court. Lawyers at the Justice Department concluded months ago that it would not assert CSB's jurisdiction in court, amid uncertainty about whether the agency was authorized to probe the accident.

Although the CSB has investigated more than 50 industrial accidents in its two-decade history -- including the lethal 2005 explosion at BP's Texas City refinery -- federal officials and companies linked to the Macondo well have questioned the board's jurisdiction to probe the Deepwater Horizon blast.

A stationary object?

The federal law that created the CSB says it is not authorized to investigate marine oil spills. The CSB has argued that applies to investigations of transportation-related spills and not its probe focusing on what happened on the rig itself.

The rig was tethered to the well in the seabed, effectively making it a stationary installation, CSB officials have said.

"The CSB continues to face significant challenges in its fact-gathering process, including companies and witnesses evading subpoenas for testimony and records," said CSB Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso said in a statement.

Moure-Eraso said the agency is focusing on whether the evolving federal oversight of offshore drilling "can adequately prevent another major accident and protect offshore workers."

On Wednesday, the CSB asked the Obama administration to hand over potentially hundreds of thousands of documents amassed during a presidential commission's six-month probe of the spill.

Don Holmstrom, the CSB's investigations supervisor, said the commission's documents "would provide us the ability to have the fullest possible picture of what occurred."

Request to Chu

Moure-Eraso made the request in a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, saying that the commission had seemed likely to approve an earlier request for the material, but that the document transfer could not be worked out before the presidential panel was disbanded last month.

The Energy Department is reviewing the letter and will consult with the Justice Department on the response.

Bob Graham, the co-chairman of the presidential commission, said in written responses to questions from the Senate in March that the CSB's earlier request for the commission documents involved "legal issues" that the Justice Department had to resolve.

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Wintershall Snags Licenses in Norway's 21st Licensing Round

Wintershall Snags Licenses in Norway's 21st Licensing Round

Monday, April 18, 2011
Wintershall AG

The Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has assigned Wintershall Norge two new licenses in the 21st Licensing Round. Wintershall is the operator of both licences. A total of 24 production licenses were awarded on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), 12 in the Barents Sea and 12 in the Norwegian Sea. "We are pleased with the results from this round. The Norwegian Continental Shelf is one of Wintershall's core regions, and we are continually building business and commitment in Norway," said Martin Bachmann, Member of the Board of Executive Directors responsible for Exploration and Production.

In June 2010 the Ministry announced 94 licenses for which 37 companies applied. Wintershall received license PL611 in the Barents Sea (in blocks 7223/3 and 6, and 7224/1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Germany's largest E&P company will be the operator with a 40% interest, Faroe Petroleum Norge holds 40% and Petoro 20%. In the Norwegian Sea, Wintershall will be the operator of PL601 in the blocks 6609/3 and
6610/1 in the Nordland III area. The company will own a share of 40%. Rocksource, North Energy and Edison International Norway Branch each hold 20%.

Tanzania Defers Offshore O&G Bidding Round until 2012

Tanzania Defers Offshore O&G Bidding Round until 2012

Monday, April 11, 2011
Dow Jones Newswires
by Nicholas Bariyo

Tanzania has postponed its fourth deep-offshore bidding round to 2012, said state oil company Tanzania Petroleum Development Corp.

The bidding round was to be opened April 12, and was expected to include 13 blocks sitting between 1,200 meters and 3,500 meters of water depth.

"The round has been postponed to give more time for preparations," TPDC said in a statement. "This will include proper demarcation of new blocks using additional new seismic."

TPDC didn't specify the exact date of the new round.

Currently, Tanzania has licensed 12 deepwater blocks and recent exploration works have encountered at least 7.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The country is yet to discover commercial oil reserves.

Sebastian Shana, TPDC's principal petroleum geologist, said at least 13 new blocks have been demarcated, including new areas and relinquished acreage.

Geologists believe that Tanzanian oil and gas exploration areas share similar geological properties with Uganda's Lake Albertine Rift basin, where around 1 billion barrels of oil reserves have been discovered.

Exploration companies already licensed in Tanzania include Shell's local subsidiary Shell International, Orca Exploration, Dominion Gas and Oil, Tullow Oil and Tower Resources.