European oil giants have a “good chance” of securing renewals for crude concessions in Abu Dhabi, the Emirati energy minister has said.
BP, Shell and Total – along with US major ExxonMobil – lost their rights as shareholders in the company operating Abu Dhabi’s onshore oil fields after their joint venture expired at the start of the year.
National oil company Adnoc took full control of the unit operating the fields while the bidding process for new concessions – worth around 1.5million barrels a day – was underway.
“Unless they aren’t aggressive in giving us value, I think they will have a very good chance,” said UAE energy minister Suhail Mohammed Al-Mazrouei.
“They are the best in understanding the field because they have been there for 70 years and we hope they will be among the winners.”
However, the minister could not give a timeframe for when a decision would be reached.
“No one is guaranteed a seat,” he said. “It’s a bidding. We wish everyone good luck, especially our legacy partners.”
The end of an accord accounting for more than half of the output from OPEC’s fourth-largest supplier weakened at least temporarily the role of international companies in the group as member nations seek to retain more oil wealth.
Exxon, Shell, Total, BP and Portugal’s Partex – and their respective predecessors – had agreements in place since 1939 for the fields before this year’s bidding process, with Adnoc joining as a partner in the 1970s.