East Timor Awards Six O&G Contracts

The East Timor government has awarded five offshore oil and gas contract areas to Italy's Eni SpA and one area to India's Reliance Industries Ltd through a tender, according to a report from Forbes. The government has reportedly offered 11 areas in the first offshore bidding round, which was ended on April 19, of which it received a total of nine bids for six areas. A statement said the commission has identified that bids from Eni SpA for contract areas A, B, C, E, and H, and a bid from Reliance for contract area K offer best conditions and advantages. Reliance also filed a bid for area E, while Petronas consortium put bids for area C and E, which were awarded to Eni. The winning companies must enter into a production sharing contract (PSC) with the Ministry of Natural Resources, Minerals and Energy, scheduled to be completed on June 20, 2006, in order to carry out exploration, development, and production activities for oil and natural gas on offshore contract areas, according to the statement. (Source: Forbes)