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By Hassan Hafidh
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
AMMAN (Dow Jones)--Iraq's Oil Ministry will meet Sept. 11 representatives of 40 world energy firms bidding for long-term deals for 12 exploration blocks under service contracts, a senior Iraqi oil official said Monday.
Top Iraqi Oil Ministry officials will meet executives of these companies, representing 22 nationalities, in Amman's Le Royal Hotel on Sept. 11 to discuss details of the blocks on offer as well as contract terms, Abdul-Mahdy al-Ameedi, head of the ministry's Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate, or PCLD, told Dow Jones Newswires.
"The one-day meeting will start at 0900 Amman time on Sept. 11 and will continue on the afternoon," Ameedi said, adding that registration for companies will start at 0800 local time the same day.
Draft model contract and tender protocols and data packages will be made available to the participating companies Sept. 12, he said. Companies will then be required to pay a participation fee for each field on which they intend to bid.
Ameedi said that companies will be invited to buy the data packages collectively or individually for each block, and said prices of the data packages will be announced Sept. 11.
Prequalified companies will compete based on fees that they will charge for exploring in these untouched blocks.
The ministry prequalified earlier this month some 41 international companies to take part in the bidding round, the country's fourth. Hess Corp. (HES), however, has since been excluded because it signed deals with the semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan without the approval of the Baghdad central government.
One category of companies, consisting of 29 including oil majors, will be allowed to bid as operators for the 12 exploration blocks. The second category will be allowed to participate in consortiums led by operators, the PCLD's head said.
Three of the blocks are in the western Anbar province, two are shared by the Anbar, Nineveh and Najaf governorates, the sixth is in Nineveh governorate and the seventh is near the border with Iran and shared by the provinces of Diyala and Wasit.
These seven are believed to contain gas resources, Oil Ministry officials said.
The remaining five blocks, believed to contain crude oil resources, are located in other governorates including Basra, Dhi Qar [Nassiriyah], Muthanna [Samawa], Babil, Najaf, Wasit and Diyala provinces, the officials said.
The size of the blocks range from 5,500-9,000 square kilometers, they said.
Iraq needs to boost gas production and build more gas-fired power plants to increase its power output, currently at 6,500 megawatts, which represent less than half the country's needs.
-By Hassan Hafidh, Dow Jones Newswires; +962 799 831 831; [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
