Adnoc close to giving Cosmo oil stake extension

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) looks set to extend the stakes a subsidiary of Japan's Cosmo Oil holds in three oilfields, a Japanese trade ministry official said on Wednesday.

Adnoc's CEO Yousef Omair bin Yousef said in a Tuesday meeting in Abu Dhabi with Japan trade minister Akihiro Ohata that he expected a 30-year extension, the ministry official said.

The UAE is Cosmo's biggest crude supplier and the second-biggest supplier to Japan after Saudi Arabia.
The Cosmo subsidiary, Abu Dhabi Oil Company, has been looking for a 30-year extension after its current contracts expire in 2012.

Adnoc's head also said that Abu Dhabi Oil Company would be granted a new concession area, as expected, the official said.

To back up Japanese companies' oil production in the Emirate, state-run Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) in November granted Adnoc a $3 billion loan co-financed with five banks.
Ohata is also visiting Saudi Arabia and Iraq on his current trip.

At a joint news conference on Monday, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs Hussain al-Shahristani said pre-qualified Japanese companies would be invited to bid this year to develop the giant Nassiriya oilfield.

The two governments also confirmed they would prepare a feasibility study on the construction of a large-scale thermal power station in southern Iraq.