Agreements for 5 hydrocarbon exploration blocks in Yemen have been signed by the Indian companies on April 13, 2008 at Saana’a the capital city of Yemen. These include agreements for block Nos. 82 & 83 by Oil India Limited(OIL) and Indian Oil Corporation(IOC) consortium with their foreign collaborators namely, Medco Energy and Kuwait Energy Company and for block Nos. 19, 28 and 57 by Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation with their foreign collaborators Jubilant Enpro and Alkor Petro. The agreements were signed in the presence of Yemeni Minister of Oil and Minerals Mr. Khaled Mahfoudh Bahah, senior officials in the Ministry of Oil and Minerals, representatives of various oil companies in Saana’a .
Speaking on the occasion the Minister of Oil of Yemen expressed great optimism in the Indian oil companies and said that he looks forward to the Indian oil companies starting their operations in Yemen in the near future. The agreements signed would go for ratification by the Yemen Parliament and then eventually would be sent for the signature of the President of Yemen. This process is expected to take about two months or so. Thereafter the agreements will become operational and the work on exploration and prospecting of hydrocarbon is expected to commence during 2008 itself.
It may be recalled that in December 2006, 7 oil blocks were allotted to different Indian companies: 82 & 83 to OIL-IOC; 19, 28 & 57 to GSPC with foreign collaborators as given above and 34 & 37 to Reliance India Limited (RIL) with Hayel Saeed Group of Yemen as the collaborator.
As for the oil block Nos. 34 & 37 allotted to Reliance India Limited, agreements were signed earlier on 20.11.2007 at Sana’a. In their case also the agreements require ratification of Yemen Parliament.
