The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced in a statement that it has signed an exploration concession agreement, awarding the exploration rights for Abu Dhabi’s Offshore Block 4 .
The agreement signed with Cosmo E&P Albahriya Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan’s Cosmo Energy Holdings Co., Ltd. (Cosmo).
Under the terms of the agreement, Cosmo will hold a 100 percent stake in the exploration phase, investing up to $145 million (AED532 million) .
The investment towards exploration and appraisal drilling, including a participation fee, to explore for and appraise oil and gas opportunities in the block that covers an offshore area of 4,865 square kilometers northwest of Abu Dhabi city.
The award of Offshore Block 4 follows the recent exploration block awards to Occidental as well as a consortium led by Italy’s Eni and Thailand’s PTTEP.(read more)
The exploration concession agreement was signed by His Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Group CEO, and Hiroshi Kiriyama, Group CEO of Cosmo.
Following a successful commercial discovery during the exploration phase, Cosmo will have the right to a production concession to develop and produce such commercial discoveries.
ADNOC has the option to hold a 60 percent stake in the production phase of the concession.
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.
In addition to drilling exploration and appraisal wells, the exploration phase will see Cosmo leverage and contribute financially and technically to ADNOC’s mega seismic survey, which is acquiring 3D seismic data within the block area.
The data already acquired over a large part of the block combined with its proximity to existing oil and gas fields, suggests the concession area has promising potential.
ADNOC launched Abu Dhabi’s second competitive block bid round in 2019, offering a set of major onshore and offshore blocks, on behalf of the Government of Abu Dhabi.
Based on existing data from detailed petroleum system studies, seismic surveys, exploration and appraisal wells data, estimates suggest the blocks in this second bid round hold multiple billion barrels of oil and multiple trillion cubic feet of natural gas, statement said.
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