Saudi Arabia’s much-anticipated opening of its multi-billion-dollar natural gas sector is picking up speed, according to media reports on January 8th.
The kingdom has informed short listed international oil companies that memorandums of understanding (MOUs) for the projects will be signed by April 1st.
The ten short listed firms had received notification in early December from the Saudi ministerial negotiating team that they had been grouped under three core gas projects.
All ten firms submitted letters of intent prior to the December 30th deadline and will be granted access to data rooms in the second half of January.
A member of the Saudi negotiating team said that: “A new round of talks will take place in mid-January with representatives from the 10 or so companies that made offers.
The meeting will allow us to present more details and information on the proposed projects to the foreign firms.”
Companies have until February 10th to submit written responses before making presentations to Saudi negotiators in Riyadh.
The negotiators are expected to determine a method for choosing leaders for the core ventures during February, with a final decision and the formation of consortia under the chosen leaders due in March.
Project terms will be discussed in detail during the second quarter after the signing of the MOUs.
Core Venture 1, which covers the South Ghawar area development, reportedly groups Royal Dutch/Shell, BP Amoco, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., TotalFinaElf and Eni.
Core Venture 2, including the Red Sea area development, has been assigned to Exxon Mobil, TotalFinaElf and Marathon Oil Co. Core Venture 3, which covers the Shaybah area development, includes TotalFinaElf, Conoco Inc., Phillips Petroleum Co. and a joint venture between Enron Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
