Abu Dhabi Launches Six Historic Oil and Gas Licensing Opportunities

• Major onshore and offshore blocks across the emirate opened for new
  competitive bidding round
• Estimates suggest blocks contain substantial amounts of oil and gas
• Successful bidders will have the opportunity to explore, and then
  develop and produce discoveries with ADNOC
• Prospective partners invited to register interest for an invitation
  to international roadshow presentations on new blocks

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced, today, as part of
Abu Dhabi's first ever block licensing strategy and on behalf of the
Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC), the details of the initial round of six
geographical oil and gas blocks open for bidding. This follows the
announcement last month by His Excellency Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE
Minister of State and ADNOC Group CEO, that Abu Dhabi was to launch its
first ever competitive exploration and production bid round.

The licensing strategy represents a major advance in how Abu Dhabi
unlocks new opportunities and maximizes value from its hydrocarbon
resources. It is also consistent with ADNOC's approach to expanding its
strategic partnerships across all areas of its business. The successful
bidders will enter into agreements granting exploration rights and,
provided defined targets are achieved in the exploration phase, be
granted the opportunity to develop and produce any discoveries with
ADNOC, under terms that will be set out in the bidding package.

H.E. Dr Al Jaber said: "The launch of these large new licensing blocks
is an important step for Abu Dhabi and ADNOC as we develop and apply new
strategies to realize the full potential of our resources, maximize
value through competitive bidding and accelerate the exploration and
development of new commercial opportunities.

"This approach is central to our expanded partnership strategy, which
aims to introduce new opportunities as we broaden and diversify our
partnership base. In addition, as we begin to expand our downstream
portfolio, the new licensing blocks reinforce our long term production
growth ambitions and builds on our successful legacy as a leading
upstream player. This is a rare and exciting opportunity, for both
existing and new partners, in a secure and stable investment
environment."

The UAE is the world's seventh largest oil producer, with about 96% of
its reserves within the emirate of Abu Dhabi. Located in one of the
world's largest hydrocarbon super-basins, there remains undiscovered and
undeveloped potential in the numerous stacked reservoirs. Based on
existing data from detailed petroleum system studies, seismic surveys,
log files and core samples from hundreds of appraisal wells, estimates
suggest these new blocks hold multiple billion barrels of oil and
multiple trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Some of the blocks already
have discoveries, and within the combined area there are 310 targeted
reservoirs from 110 prospects and leads. In addition to the country's
conventional oil and gas accumulations, some of the offered blocks also
contain significant unconventional resource potential.

The six blocks open for bidding, two of which are offshore and four are
onshore, cover an area of between 2,500 and 6,300 square kilometres,
which, by comparison, is up to three quarters of a U.K. North Sea
quadrant, consisting of 30 blocks. In total, Abu Dhabi's six blocks
comprise an area of almost 30,000 km2.

ADNOC has established a dedicated website – www.adnoc.ae/Block-Bid
– where the company provides information on the blocks and which has a
portal where interested bidders can register to participate, subject to
a strict prequalification process undertaken by ADNOC.

The website also provides details of a global roadshow of technical and
commercial information on the new blocks. After the roadshow, bidders
will confirm their participation through an Expression of Interest and
will be able to purchase a comprehensive data package on the six blocks.
The data package will include full bidding instructions and regional
geological information, in addition to well and seismic data, in both
raw and interpreted form, on all six blocks.

Registration is open to companies with suitable expertise and technology
that can contribute to accelerating the exploration and development of
new conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon opportunities in Abu
Dhabi.

The closing date for the receipt of bids will be in October, after which
ADNOC will evaluate the bids, using the criteria set out in the bidding
instructions, and the SPC will award the successful bidders. The first
bid round is planned to conclude this year.

About ADNOC

ADNOC is a major diversified group of energy and petrochemical companies
that produces about 3 million barrels of oil and 9.8 billion cubic feet
of raw gas a day. Its integrated upstream, midstream and downstream
activities are carried out by 14 specialist subsidiary and joint venture
companies. To find out more visit www.adnoc.ae

*Source: AETOSWire

Contacts

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)
Fatema Al Khateeb,
+97127075929
[email protected]
[email protected]