**Corrected DJ News Article**
19 Apr 2005 06:45 ET DJ Sao Tomean-Nigerian Block Awards Made Next Week -Official
ABUJA (Dow Jones)--Block awards for the current licensing round for the Sao Tomean-Nigerian Joint Development Zone will be made next week, a Sao Tomean official has told Dow Jones Newswires.
Carlos Gomes, Sao Tome's chief representative on the two countries' Joint Exploration Authority, said the awards will be made next week, after the Joint Ministerial Council meeting on Apr. 25. Gomes was speaking on the sidelines of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Conference in Abuja.
"Companies will be given two weeks to accept or reject the awards," said Gomes. "When they accept offers, we will start negotiations."
Gomes denied suggestions that the authorities operating the licensing round were unhappy with ExxonMobil's (XOM) recent decision not to exercise its preferentials right in the JDZ.
"We are not disappointed with that at all," he said.
The licensing round process for the JDZ, a jointly-held maritime region between Nigeria and Sao Tome and Principe, has been ongoing since April 2003. The licensing round itself closed on Dec. 15 2004, with 26 bids from 23 companies being received for the five JDZ oil and gas blocks on offer, but the block awards have met with continual delays.
-By Vincent Nwanma, Dow Jones Newswires; +234-1-585-0849; vinwanma@beta.linkserve.com
(Norval Scott in London also contributed to this story.)
Corrected April 19, 2005 08:46 ET (1246GMT)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 19, 2005 06:45 ET (10:45 GMT)
19 Apr 2005 08:44 ET DJ CORRECT: Sao Tome-Nigeria Block Awards For Current Round
