JDZ News: Nigeria, Sao Tome to offer four new oil blocks for bidding in JDZ
(Note: A re-heat of Lusa story, but interesting none the less coming x-NG.)
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
By Sulaimon Salau
- x The Guardian -
BARRING unforeseen circumstances, Nigeria and its partners in the Joint Development Zone (JDZ)-Sao Tome and Principe, will in 2011, auction four new oil blocks in the hydrocarbon rich zone.
Although, the new oil blocks are said to be smaller than the initially allocated blocks, the Joint Development Authority (JDA) the development portrays progress and signifies the abundant prospects inherent in the zone.
Giving the analysis of the blocks and level of preparation, the president of JDA, Jorge Santos said that the authority that manages the JDZ has commenced negotiations with a specialised company that will carry out the necessary seismic surveys, even as it is considering awarding the contract to another entity.
The blocks are 7, 8, 9 and 10, which are, "generally small, with areas between 750 and 1,500 square kilometres," Santos said.
Block 1 was drilled in 2006 by US oil company, Chevron, but the work did not detect commercially-viable oil.
After a three-year period of little progress, he said work in the JDZ would begin again this month in block 2, carried out by China's Sinopec, and in block 4, in July, by Addax Petroleum.
The issue of blocks 5 and 6, which were, respectively, awarded to ICCOOECA and Filtun Huzodo, is yet to be resolved, as contracts for sharing production remained pending.
Santos also said that the issue involves ERHC Energy, which has interests in all of the JDZ oil blocks, except for number 1, and has 15 per cent of blocks 5 and 6.
President Umar Yar'Adua and his counterpart from Sao Tome and Principe, Fradique de Menezes, have recently registered their displeasure about the delay in oil explorations from the JDZ.
The duo said that they would put pressure on oil firms to forge ahead with exploration in the zone, jointly operated by both countries.
They said that licensing agreements were in place for four of the six blocks in the zone but there were still some unresolved issues over rights to the two remaining blocks.
Yar'Adua said: "It is time for us now to make the oil companies work in that zone between our two countries. Nigeria is going to put pressure on them to start drilling activities on the oil blocks they won and for which agreements have been signed."
Speaking in the same vein, de Menezes said: "We agreed that this is the time to make the oil companies in the zone work. The oil companies must now start work. The Nigerian president has assured me that Nigeria is now ready to mount some pressure on the oil companies in order to really start operating the oil blocks, because they must drill the blocks they won."
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