The Urja Bharat 50:50 joint venture of Indian state firms IndianOil and Bharat Petroleum has upgraded its exploration license at Abu Dhabi’s Onshore Block 1 to a Production license after investing nearly $164mn. Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs (SCFEA) made the announcement on 11 September. The JV was awarded the block in March 2019 in Abu Dhabi’s first licensing round (MEES, 29 March 2019). Under the terms of the agreement, Adnoc retained the right to take a 60% stake in any production phase, although in this instance it has not exercised this.
The SCFEA says initial exploration efforts yielded positive results for conventional oil and gas “specifically within the 38km² Ruwais area,” but provided no further detail. The announcement comes as Adnoc pushes towards its target of 5mn b/d production capacity by 2027 (MEES, 13 September). (CONTINUED - 180 WORDS)