Saudi Arabia on Friday declared eight leading energy companies winners in the race for a stake in its multi-billion-dollar gas development initiative, the kingdom's biggest opening to foreign investors for 25 years, reported the Gulf Daily News.
Super-majors ExxonMobil and Royal/Dutch Shell won starring roles in three projects that are estimated to require combined initial investment of $25 billion, said the paper.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal said Exxon, Shell, BP and Phillips were given stakes in the biggest of the projects on offer, the $15 billion development in South Ghawar, known as core venture one, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) announced.
Exxon also secured the leading role in core venture two, on the Red Sea coast, with Enron and Occidental taking smaller shares.
Shell, TotalFinaElf and Conoco won stakes in core venture three, for development of gas at Shaybah in the empty quarter of southeast Saudi Arabia.
Shell said it was pleased to have won a significant stake in gas ventures.
“Shell is honored to be given such a significant role in this historic development,” group chairman Mark Moody-Stuart said in a company statement, cited by SPA.
The awards mark the biggest advance in Saudi efforts to develop its gas reserves, the world's fourth largest, since Riyadh unveiled the energy opening more than two years ago.
Eleven companies since have competed furiously for the opportunity to invest in the world’s leading energy producer, a country that had forbidden upstream investment since nationalization in 1975.
With Kuwait about to open its doors to foreign investors, Mexico is left as the last bastion of energy nationalization.
Saudi's huge upstream oil sector, easily the world's largest, remains out of bounds. But the companies hope their entry into the gas sector will put them in pole position for any eventual oil opening, said the paper - Albawaba.com
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