Morocco presents off-shore oil drill tender to US operators

Morocco launched on Thursday in Houston an international tender for oil prospecting in the Rabat-Safi offshore 31,090 square km zone.

Amina Benkhadra, general manager of the Moroccan office of oil research and exploitation (ONAREP) presented before about one hundred oil and engineering companies representatives Morocco's new energy policy, the new seismic data, legal and fiscal provisions and eligibility conditions for participation in the international tender.

Benkhadra also insisted on Morocco's potentials as a stable, democratic and open country, guaranteeing the freedom of speech and defending the rules of free market.

Benkhadra's trip to Houston is part of Morocco's promotion of oil exploration.

Results of the tender, to close on April 30, 2001, will be made public on July 30, 2001.

The ONAREP chief already visited London, where she presented the Moroccan program to British oil companies.

Morocco had granted last April -- under an accord between ONAREP and the US Lone Star Energy-- three licenses to the US Skidmore firm to carry out drilling operations over an area of 6,000 square km.

Some $ 50 million were earmarked to the drilling operations.

The move was crowned with the announcement last July of important oil and gas deposits in the south-eastern area of Talsint.