Page 11 - MEOG Week 43

MEOG tenders MEOG
Israel grants licences following disappointing bid round
israeL
ISRAEL this week awarded offshore exploration licences to two consortia as part of its much- hyped and equally disappointing latest licensing round.
The first group of companies, which is made up of UK-based Cairn Energy and Pharos Energy alongside local firm Ratio Oil Explora- tion, was awarded eight licences, with the sec- ond consortium, made up of Energean and Israel Opportunity, winning four. Pharos Energy is the new name for Soco International.
The parties won acquired each of the 12 blocks they bid for out of a possible 19, with each licence covering 400 square km.
The deadline for bidding was pushed back from June 17 to July 15 amid apparent concerns about a lack of interest.
At the time, the Petroleum Commissioner said the delay came about to give bidders “more time to complete their assessments”, expressing satisfaction with the interest shown by partici- pating companies.
Winning bids from the round were originally scheduled to be announced on August 12.
The acreage was divided into five “clusters” as part of efforts to encourage a single company or consortium to acquire multiple contiguous
licences.
The $2.5mn “basic participation guarantee”
paid for the first block falls to $500,000 for each additional block purchased within the grouping. Licences will have an initial duration of three years, which will be extendable by two years on condition of a commitment to drill at least one well during the period and by a further two years contingent on a promise to drill a well in each of
the licences acquired.
In announcing the awards, the ministry said
that its next licensing round would be launched in 2021.
The involvement of Energean came as little surprise. The firm recently announced a deal to acquire the oil and gas assets of EDF’s Italian subsidiary Edison E&P for $750mn, increasing to $850mn once gas production begins at Italy’s offshore Cassiopeia field, later agreeing to sell those in the North Sea.
Cairn will be hoping that the Israel licence award will stop the rot, with the company suffering from a poor run of form, having announced two exploration wells coming up dry within the last two weeks as well as a further delay to its $1.4bn tax claim against the Indian government.™
PriCes
Date
WTI (US$)
ICE Brent (US$)
DME Oman (US$)
OPEC Basket (US$)
22 October
54.16
60.45
59.70
59.78
23 October
55.97
62.38
61.17
60.42
24 October
56.23
63.25
61.67
61.63
25 October
56.66
62.40
62.02
62.16
28 October
55.81
61.57
61.68
61.65
Week 43 29•October•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P11