The Saudi ministry of oil and mineral resources has invited about 50 national and international oil companies to a July 22 meeting in London to discuss a new opening in onshore natural gas exploration, the Middle East Economic Survey reported.
Later this year, bid packages will be sent out to qualified and interested firms, the industry newsletter says.
Although the list of companies receiving invitations has not been published, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said in Oslo on Thursday that Norway's Statoil and Norsk Hydro were among those that had been invited to bid for the new packages, it adds.
"While the original Natural Gas Initiative [NGI] concept was for integrated packages of upstream, midstream and downstream projects, the new offering concentrates on the upstream -- and onshore natural gas exploration only," the Survey said.
An industry source in Riyadh told reporters last week that Saudi Arabia was locked in what appeared to be a last-ditch effort with international oil companies (IOCs) to salvage a deal for a multi-billion-dollar gas project.
However Riyadh and the Royal Dutch/Shell-led consortium involved in Core Venture 3 (CV3) are now discussing different possibilities for the US$5 billion scheme, part of the NGI, the source said.
"Discussions are not over yet with the CV3 consortium ... All kinds of discussions are going on ... Different aspects and options are being considered at the same time," said the source, requesting anonymity.
The consortium to develop the Shaybah field in Rubi al-Khali also includes Total and Conoco.
The Survey reported in its June 23 edition that the discussions on CV3 are "on an exploration-only basis" which means that power, water and petrochemical plants have been dropped from the original bid.
After signing preliminary agreements with IOCs for three major projects in June 2001, Saudi Arabia and the companies have repeatedly missed deadlines to sign final deals, failing to agree on commercial terms and gas reserves.
On June 5, ExxonMobil, which was awarded the lead role for the first and second core ventures, said it received a letter from Nuaimi regarding CV1, but declined to say if the project was scrapped.
Saudi oil sources said talks on CV1 had been abandoned, but the US oil giant insisted that the consortium has not sought to terminate its negotiations with the kingdom.
CV2 was earlier shelved by the Saudis for reconsideration.
Saudi Arabia, which sits atop the world's biggest oil reserves, has proven natural gas reserves of 6.6 trillion cubic meters.
RSS