DOHA: Qatar Petroleum (QP), on behalf of the Government of Qatar, yesterday signed a new Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement (EPSA) for Offshore Block-A (pre-Khuff) with the Japanese company, JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration (Qatar) Ltd (NOEX), as the contractor and operator.
The EPSA was signed here by H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry, and Makoto Koseki, President and Chief Executive Officer of NOEX.
Block-A covers an area of 6,173sqkm offshore Qatar and is located northeast of Ras Laffan Industrial City. The EPSA entails exploring for gas in the pre-Khuff geological intervals of Block A.
Dr Al Sada said the new EPSA is part of QP's plans to increase the country's hydrocarbon reserves base, oil and gas production potential and further strengthen Qatar's economy. It is also a continuation of QP's exploration campaign focused on the deep pre-Khuff reservoirs, following the signing of Block BC EPSA with CNOOC of China and the Block D EPSA with Shell and Petrochina. These two projects are still on early stages of seismic and conceptual studies and the drilling activities are expected to start by the end of next year or early 2013 as per the schedule.
Saad Sherida Al Kaabi, Director Oil & Gas Ventures at QP, said the term of the EPSA is 30 years, starting with a 5-year exploration period, during which the JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration (Qatar) Ltd will implement a work programme including exploration technical studies, 2D and 3D seismic acquisition, processing, re-processing and interpretation and drilling a number of exploration wells to the pre-Khuff formation under QP's supervision.NOEX is to spend over $100m for the exploration in this first phase.
Speaking on the occasion, Koseki, said that Block A is NOEX fisrt exploration project in Qatar. Block "A" is beneath the North Field which is the largest single gas field in the world and a source of Qatar LNG.
"We are very excited to have the opportunity to explore the "Pre-Khuff Formation" in such a promising block. We recognized that we have duly received an important mission to find a new gas source in Qatar. To that end, we have revisited our commitments to recognise the importance of our responsibility and we have refreshed our resolution to make the Block "A" project successful so as to help sustain Qatar's position as the world's largest LNG exporter," said Koseki.
He also said NOEX, one of the three core business companies of JX Group is planning to open its office in Doha soon.
Asked whether Qatar would supply yet additional quantities of LNG to Japan, Al sada said: "We are lucky to be in a position to divert quantities to Japan and we are considering with Japanese companies and QP and its subsidiaries are discussing some possible additional quantities to Japan."
He added that Qatari LNG is served by something like 96 LNG ships, 54 out of which is owned by Nakilat and the rest owned by other entities but fully dedicated to Qatar's LNG. "That helps our efficiency and quick response to the Japanese request," he added.
© The Peninsula 2011
