Yemen may offer new oil, gas blocks later this year
Yemen may offer new oil and gas exploration blocks in a fifth bidding round for international firms by the last quarter of 2008.
Yemeni officials said that Yemen was now offering incentives for international firms to invest in gas under the revised production sharing agreements.
Total's Yemen LNG liquefied natural gas project, which will have capacity to produce 6.7 million tonnes per year of LNG, was progressing with the construction of the first of the two trains on schedule to be completed by the end of this year.
Bahah was in Tokyo to promote investments in the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country, where so far no Japanese firms have participated in upstream oil and gas business.
Japan Petroleum Exploration Co (Japex) has applied for the fourth bidding round, Bahah said. The winning bids are scheduled to be announced in July. Bids were due in on Jan. 7.
Yemen has accepted 25 of 30 bids from international companies that it received for exploration rights in 11 offshore oil blocks offered in the fourth bidding round.
It plans to reverse its declining oil output and boost production to around 500,000 barrels per day from about 320,000 bpd on average in 2007.
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