Myanmar could formally award acreage from its highly anticipated
offshore licensing round in February or March next year, an official at
the Ministry of Energy said Wednesday.
"Right now we are doing
the overview with the companies who have pre-qualified," Energy Planning
Department Director Khin Khin Aye said.
Myanmar in April offered
30 blocks in its offshore licensing round -- 11 shallow water and 19
deepwater -- with a June 14 deadline for submission of formal
expressions of interest, along with financial statements.
A notice on the ministry's website said that companies that had been
pre-qualified in the bid round have been lined up for a "general data
overview" since July 15.
According to the list, 61 oil and gas
companies have been pre-qualified, including international oil majors
Shell, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Total, Statoil, Eni and Repsol.
It
also includes many Asian national oil companies such as China National
Petroleum Corp., Korea National Oil Corp., Korea Gas Corp., Japan's JX
Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp. and India's ONGC Videsh, GAIL,
OIL and Reliance Industries.
Other large independents who have
pre-qualified include Anadarko Petroleum, Husky Energy, Hess, Murphy
Oil, Premier Oil, Woodside Energy and Delek Energy.
Four companies are scheduled at each meeting, with the last group of five companies to be seen on August 12.
The ministry had said in April that companies were expected to have a proven track record of offshore operations.
Once
pre-qualified, the government would give successful applicants the
chance to look at more detailed information about the blocks on offer
and the terms and conditions of the shallow and deepwater contracts.
The
companies would subsequently be allowed to submit bids for up to three
blocks, drawn from the list of shallow water blocks and/or the deepwater
acreage.
For the shallow water blocks, companies will have to
team up with at least one Myanmar-owned company, while for the deepwater
blocks the companies will be expected to invest directly without any
local participation, the ministry said.
ONSHORE BLOCKS TO BE AWARDED IN DECEMBER
Khin
said the 18 blocks that were offered in Myanmar's second onshore
licensing round announced in January are likely to be formally awarded
in December.
The data review period was completed in June and the
pre-qualified companies have until August 23 to submit their final
proposals for the blocks, she added.
A total of 59 companies were
pre-qualified in that round, including PTT Exploration and Production,
Petronas, PetroVietnam, Sinopec, ONGC Videsh, Total, Eni, Woodside and
Exxon.
Khin said the ministry plans to adjust certain terms in its PSCs to make it more attractive to foreign investment.
It is looking to reduce the income tax rate from 30% to 25%, and extend an existing three-year tax holiday to five years.
Existing PSCs stipulate a three-year exploration period followed by 20 years for production, with the royalty rate set at 12.5%.
For
deepwater blocks, the state's share of production -- represented by
state-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise -- ranges from 60% to 85% for
crude oil and 55% to 80% for natural gas, with the cost recovery ceiling
set at 70%.
MOGE's take for onshore blocks is between 60% and
90% for both crude and gas, depending on the volumes produced. Cost
recovery is set at 50%.
Myanmar has been attracting oil and gas
companies since US sanctions were lifted last year and investment
sentiment has improved considerably after the former military government
handed over power to President Thein Sein.
source: Platts
http://www.platts.com/latest-news/natural-gas/singapore/myanmar-to-award-offshore-blocks-in-2014-onshore-27251698
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