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Tony Blair's handshake with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi--the man formerly known as the 'mad dog' of the Middle East--on 25 March reverberated around the world. In oil circles, however, the [...]

As the most senior of Qatar's energy executives gathered at Ras Laffan in mid-May for the inauguration of the landmark cross-border Dolphin gas pipeline running from Qatar to the UAE, [...]

Egypt The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has once more postponed the deadline for four new deep water exploration blocks in the Mediterranean. The new deadline, extended from 15 November, [...]

A partnership of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group and the UK's Lasmo is negotiating a service contract for two offshore oil blocks in the Caspian Sea. The two firms will be [...]

The largest of Qatar's major hydrocarbons-producing areas, the North field, may be out of bounds to exploration until 2013 at the earliest because of the moratorium on new projects imposed [...]

Iraq's Oil Ministry has set out the prequalification process for international oil companies (IOCs) preparing to participate in the country's fourth oil and gas field bid round. Baghdad hopes to [...]

Iraq's Oil Ministry on 20 October awarded three natural gas field exploration licences in its third hydrocarbons licensing round, but the Ruction failed to attract bids from the major international [...]

Baghdad's controversial plan to develop with a Shell-led consortium gas resources in southern Iraq could be back on the table. Negotiations between Iraq's Oil Ministry, state-run South Gas Company and [...]

The British Petroleum Company (BP) has stopped its drilling programme in its offshore exploration concession and declared force majeure on subcontracts related to the drilling. This is a result of [...]

Saudi stake in BP licence revealed A Gibraltar-registered company owned by a leading Saudi family with origins in Yemen is a partner in two oil exploration blocks in the Shabwa [...]

At least a dozen international energy companies are to bid in Egypt's latest gas exploration round, according to industry sources, despite the oil majors having yet to be informed of [...]

Cairo is to offer improved pricing terms to international oil companies (IOCs) as part of a new gas exploration round in the Mediterranean Sea aimed at attracting fresh international investment [...]

Tehran is reviewing proposals to make its investment terms more attractive to international oil companies (IOCs) by offering production sharing contracts for the first time. The state-run National Iranian Oil [...]

Oil majors seeking to explore for oil and gas in Algeria's most promising areas will have to offer stakes in their overseas schemes to state energy company Sonatrach. Algiers says [...]

Paris-based Gaz de France (GdF) and Germany's Wintershall are frontrunners to win the first of two new offshore exploration blocks as Qatar looks to fast-track its programme to increase crude [...]

The South Rub al-Khali (Srak) exploration company expects to complete drilling on only one more well in the Rub al-Khali (Empty Quarter) before its contract with Saudi Aramco expires in [...]

Stiff competition is expected for the 41 exploration and production licences on offer in Tripoli's latest international licensing round, after the state-owned National Oil Company shortlisted 35 firms to operate [...]

Much of the acreage offered in Tripoli's first international gas exploration round, launched on 8 July, has little prospectivity and is unlikely to attract major Western oil companies, say industry [...]

The UK's BP has invited more than 30 local and international companies to submit prequalification applications for the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract on the first phase of its [...]

The Petroleum & Mineral Resources Ministry has invited international oil companies (IOCs) to bid for exploration and production sharing agreements (EPSAs) for seven onshore blocks. 'In total we are offering [...]

The Royal Dutch/Shell Group is preparing for an exploration programme in its new blocks in the southeast. 'Parliament has ratified the production sharing agreement [PSA] for blocks 13 and 15, [...]

Tehran has launched a new oil and gas exploration and development licensing round. National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has put 17 onshore and offshore blocks up for tender (see Tenders). [...]

The Kurdistan regional government (KRG) is poised to sign up to 10 new production sharing agreements (PSAs) with international companies once its proposed hydrocarbons law covering northern Iraq has been [...]

The Royal Dutch/Shell Group signed an agreement on 27 November with state energy company Sonatrach to carry out an optimisation study of the country's liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum [...]

Bidding is under way on the retendered Qarn Alam enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project, after Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) issued the invitation to bid package to prequalifiers. Companies have been [...]

SELECTED MAJOR PROJECTS PLANNED IN QATAR, SEPTEMBER 2006 Estimated cost Client Project ($ million) Scope LNG Rascas Rascas offplots 1,000 Condensate and LPG tanks, plus loading arms and marine works [...]

National Oil Company (NOC) chairman Shukri Ghanem has confirmed Tripoli's intention to launch in the autumn the country's third oil and gas exploration licensing round since the lifting of international [...]

Canada's Madalena Ventures announced n late May the signing of a seismic option agreement with Aberdeen-based Storm Ventures International for the Hammamet exploration block in the offshore Pelagian basin. Under [...]

The UK's BP has begun formal negotiations with National Oil Corporation (NOC) over a natural gas exploration and development agreement, Sources at BP say that the oil major has signed [...]

Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) will launch its first exploration licensing round of 2005 by early May, The bid round will include 15 blocks, say sources at the company. The [...]

The award of three licences to explore for oil in the Western Desert is imminent following the completion of bid evaluations by Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC). Sources in Cairo [...]

Libya's oil industry will enter a new era on 29 January, when more than 60 international oil companies (IOCs)--including most of the US and European majors--submit bids for 15 exploration [...]

State-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) has released for tender 15 new exploration blocks in the Nile Delta region, the Western Desert and the Gulf of Suez. Bids are due [...]

Maersk Oil Morocco, the local subsidiary of Denmark's Maersk Oil & Gas, was awarded on 19 April eight oil exploration licences for the offshore Tarfaya concession, covering a total area [...]

The Japanese consortium aiming to develop the landmark $2,000 million Azadegan field has collapsed with the withdrawal of at least one partner. Major international oil companies (IOCs) are now expected [...]

The US' Apache Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and Egyptian Gas Holding Company (Egas) for a gas sales agreement, field [...]

State-owned Sonatrach and the US' Anadarko Petroleum Corporation have announced a new discovery in block 404 in the Berkine basin. The Berkine North East (BKNE) well tested at a rate [...]

Qatar Petroleum (QP) expects to award by March the block 4 offshore concession located on the northern edge of its maritime boundary. About five international oil companies have bid for [...]

France's TotalFinaElf signed on 13 March an exploration and production-sharing agreement (EPSA) with the Oil & Gas Ministry for Block 34, located in the south of the sultanate. Under the [...]

Austria's OMV has concluded an agreement with the UK's Clyde Petroleum to farm into block 10b in Hadhramaut. Through its wholly owned subsidiary OMV (Yemen) Exploration, OMV has taken a [...]

New oil agreements expected by the end of the year The recent agreement signed with Total (Compagnie Francaise des Petroles) to develop the Hamra gas and condensate field will provide [...]

Total signs for oil and gas work Total (Compagnie Francaise des Petroles) is to develop the Hamra gas and condensate field after several years' wait. The company has also signed [...]