Yemen looks to relaunch bid round
The Source: SANA'A/hadhramaut.infor/sabanews.net - 13/09/2010
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Yemen is planning to relaunch its 2008 offshore licensing round in the hope of restarting exploration in the country, Upstream newspaper has reported.
Sana'a next October.Yemen aims to offer the rights to develop 15 offshore hydrocarbon blocks next month as the smallest producer on the Arabian Peninsula seeks to boost its production."Expanding exploration is one of the priorities of the government", Aidarous said in an interview with the Upstream newspaper.Yemen suspended its high- profile offshore international licensing round in 2008, citing lack of seismic data and tepid interest from investors.The Oil Ministry of Yemen had pre- qualified 25 international companies, including US supermajor ExxonMobil, French giant Total and Norway's Statoil, for the ill-fated offshore bid round containing blocks in the deep and ultra-deep waters of the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.Bidders decided not to compete as the oil market collapsed in the wake of the global economic crisis.Upstream said that the suspension was a serious blow to Yemen's efforts to breathe new life into exploration at a time of falling production from its ageing fields.The country's oil output has been steadily declining in recent years and has now plunged below 300,000 barrels per day.Yemen is pinning its hopes on the offshore sector for new oil and gas finds as its onshore fields have matured and some are nearing the end of their productive lives.
Aidarous said limited exploration activity over the last 10 years had caused Yemen's oil production to drop but there are still discoveries to be made."There is a decline not because of the non-availability of oil, but because of the absence of an exploration vision," said Aidarous.Yemen, which relies on oil for 75 percent of its income, is looking to attract foreign expertise to revive falling production.The country’s crude output declined to 288,000 barrels a day last year from as much as 440,000 barrels a day in 2001.
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