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International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) said it will begin producing oil via a new pipeline that will avoid the narrow Strait of Hormuz in 2011. The 360-kilometer line, Abu Dhabi crude oil pipeline (Adcop) will transport around 1.5 million barrels per day of crude to Fujairah on the United Arab Emirates’ east coast. The pipeline will be operating by August 2011.
A spokesman from Iraq’s Oil Ministry has announced that the auction for the second bidding round for development contracts of the country’s oil and gas fields will be held in Baghdad at the end of November.
News agency Reuters reported that Asim Jihad said a date had yet to be formally set, but the end of November would give interested parties time to formulate bids.
The first auction was held between June 30 and July 1 and was not the spectacular success the Iraq Oil Minister Hussain Shahristani was hoping for. Only one contract was awarded out of a possible eight on offer, the super giant Rumaila in Basra, to a BP-led consortium.
The stumbling block in the first auction was the draconian payment terms set by Baghdad did not tally with the figures most foreign oil companies were looking for to develop the fields. Jihad did not indicate whether or not the terms for the second bidding round would be any different.
One field not up for grabs in the second round is the Siba gas field. The field was removed from the auction last week.
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