Japan's Mitsui Oil Exploration Co. and Austria's OMV AG have agreed to bid together in the third round of international bidding that Libya will hold on Dec. 20 for oil and gas exploration projects.
Mitsui Oil tendered a bid at the second round last October but failed to win an exploration interest at that time. OMV already has interests in oil exploration in Libya and other parts of North Africa, so Mitsui Oil hopes that by teaming with the company it will be able to submit a wining bid.
The winners will be determined on Dec. 20, which is the same day that bids will be tendered. If OMV and Mitsui Oil submit a winning bid, Mitsui is expected to become the minority-interest partner. Both companies will dispatch engineers to investigate and evaluate the blocks.
Mitsui Oil currently has oil and gas production rights equivalent to 80,000 barrels of crude a day. The company plans to invest 100 billion yen (US$848.6 million) to increase that figure to more than 100,000 barrels a day in fiscal year 2008, but to achieve that goal it needs to acquire new interests.
Participation in Libya's exploration projects is highly desirable. Because of past sanctions, the country still has much unexplored land.
(Asia Pulse Pte Ltd, 15/12/2006)