Abu Dhabi launches second bid round

Abu Dhabi is offering exploration licenses for five blocks in its second international round of oil and gas bidding.

The two offshore and three onshore blocks cover a combined 34,000 sq km.

In the first bid round, which closed in March, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. awarded concessions to two offshore and three onshore blocks covering a total of 30,000 sq km (OGJ Online, Mar. 25, 2019).

It has now made available for international bidding about two thirds of its territory, saying it “is accelerating the exploration and development of its huge untapped resource potential outside the immediate production areas.”

Successful bidders will enter agreements giving them exploration rights and the chance to develop and produce any discoveries under terms specified in bid packages, subject to the achievement of “defined targets” during exploration.

For Onshore Block 2, on the border with Saudi Arabia, ADNOC offers separate licenses for unconventional and conventional resources. It withheld the block from first-round bidding to await completion of an assessment of unconventional potential, on the basis of which it expanded the block to the east.

Licenses offered for Onshore Block 5, on the border with Oman, and Offshore Blocks 3, 4, and 5 are for conventional resources.

The license offered for Offshore Block 3, which partly overlaps existing concessions, covers gas in deep formations and oil in various formations outside existing concessions.

Covering more than 11,000 sq km, Offshore Block 3 is the largest offered in either bid round.

In the first bid round, ADNOC awarded concessions to a group led by Eni and PTT Exploration & Production for Offshore Blocks 1 and 2, Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. and Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. for Onshore Block 1, Occidental Petroleum for Onshore Block 3, and Inpex Corp. for Onshore Block 4.