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Nicaragua to award bids soon



By Upstream staff 

Nicaragua will offer concessions to US companies exploring for oil off its coasts next week, said an energy official last Friday.

Nicaraguan Energy Institute hydrocarbons director Fernando Ocampo said that the four US companies, MKJ Exploraciones Internacionales, Infinity, Helen Greathouse (Aransas Petroleum), and Industrias Oklahoma-Nicaragua, had qualified in a bidding process and would be issued offshore exploration concessions.

Neighbouring Colombia had disputed Nicaragua’s claim to the blocks after the licensing round was open and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had said last Thursday that he would send navy ships to stop drilling, reported Reuters.

Colombia's claim is based on its control of the Caribbean islands of San Andres and Providencia. The two countries agreed on maritime frontiers in a 1928 accord, but Nicaragua declared that void during the Sandinista government of the 1980s.

However, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Norman Caldera had said last Friday that Colombian authorities now recognized that the concessions were not in the disputed territory.

He added that the exploration was entirely within Nicaraguan waters and that the Colombian authorities had agreed that there was no dispute.

Nicaragua hopes to generate $100 million from the contracts and estimates production potential at 50,000 barrels per day of oil and 2 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.


Monday, 28 April, 2003, 02:54 GMT  | last updated: Saturday, 30 April, 2005, 21:23 GMT

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