Abu Dhabi National Oil Awards Exploration Block To Cosmo

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Abu Dhabi National Oil has awarded exploration block to Cosmo in Abu Dhabi’s second competitive bid round<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;OpenLife Nigeria reports that the Abu Dhabi National<strong> Oil<&sol;strong> Company &lpar;ADNOC&rpar; signed an exploration concession agreement with Cosmo E&amp&semi;P for the exploration rights to Abu Dhabi’s Offshore Block 4&period; The award has been approved by Abu Dhabi’s newly formed Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs &lpar;SCFEA&rpar; and marks the first of such awards endorsed by the SCFEA&period; The award of Offshore Block 4 follows the recent exploration block awards to Occidental&comma; as well as a consortium led by Italy’s Eni and Thailand’s PTTEP&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sultan Dr&period; Al Jaber&comma; UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Group CEO said about the agreement&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are delighted to extend our partnership with Cosmo&comma; particularly as this award underscores&comma; once more&comma; the important role of energy cooperation in enhancing economic relations between the UAE and Japan as we focus on the post-Covid recovery&period; Cosmo was selected after a very competitive bid round&period; They bring expertise and understanding of our offshore environment&comma; technology&comma; and market access – key ingredients that underpin ADNOC’s targeted approach to strategic partnerships&comma; which is enabling us to unlock and maximize value from our assets and resources as we continue to deliver on our 2030 strategy&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;Under the terms of the agreement&comma; Cosmo will hold a 100&percnt; stake in the exploration phase&comma; investing up to &dollar;145 million towards exploration and appraisal drilling&comma; including a participation fee&comma; to explore for and appraise oil and gas opportunities in the block that covers an offshore area of 4&comma;865 sq km northwest of Abu Dhabi city&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Government of Abu Dhabi and Cosmo have a strong partnership in the oil and gas sector which we have built for more than half a century&period; This award represents a significant milestone for us to accelerate our upstream business in Abu Dhabi and further strengthens our seamless and multi-faceted partnership with both Abu Dhabi and ADNOC&period; We are excited to explore this promising block to unlock the hydrocarbon value by leveraging our expertise and experience&comma;” said Hiroshi Kiriyama&comma; Group CEO of Cosmo&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Following a successful commercial discovery during the exploration phase&comma; Cosmo will have the right to a production concession to develop and produce such commercial discoveries&period; ADNOC has the option to hold a 60&percnt; stake in the production phase of the concession&period; The term of the production phase is 35 years from the commencement of the exploration phase and the block offers the potential to create significant in-country value for the UAE over the lifetime of the concession&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In addition to drilling exploration and appraisal wells&comma; the exploration phase will see Cosmo leverage and contribute financially and technically to ADNOC’s mega seismic survey&comma; which is acquiring 3D seismic data within the block area&period; The data already acquired over a large part of the block combined with its proximity to existing oil and gas fields&comma; suggests the concession area has promising potential&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;<em><strong>Source&colon; Drilling Contractors<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;