Nigerian govt to compromise on sale of contested oil blocks

The Nigerian government has found a compromise solution to Wednesday's court ruling stopping the sale of two disputed oil blocks, a senior official said Friday.

The Federal High Court ruled the government could not sell OMLs (Oil Mining Licenses) 13 and 16 at the bid round taking place Friday in the federal capital Abuja.

The government says it has the right to put the blocks up for sale again as the company to which they were originally awarded in July 1989, Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Limited, failed to develop them in a timely fashion.

Shell contests this.

"We will obey the court order. We will collect the bids for the blocks and open them here today but we will stay further action pending the (final) ruling of the court," Tony Chukwueke, Nigeria's Director of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said Friday.

The court is set to make its ruling May 17.

Chukwueke was speaking on the margins of an auction at which Nigeria is selling 45 oil blocks, that is chunks of oil fields, to domestic and international bidders.

Opening the auction, Nigerian Energy Minister Edmund Daukoru urged prospective buyers to bid aggressively.

"Bid on as many blocks as you want to, including the so-called designated 'right of first refusal' blocks," Daukoru said.

The "right of first refusal blocks" are blocks supposed to be reserved for bidders who are willing to invest in another sector of the economy, be it road construction or building a refinery, in exchange for the award of an oil exploration block.

Source : news.yahoo.com