The Minister of Oil and Gas Mohammed Oun called for the implementation of House of Representatives' Resolution No. 15 of 2023 regarding stopping new procedures, contracts, or amendments to any previous measures regarding sovereign assets such as oil, gas, and gold.
Oun urged in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the National Oil Corporation and the General Company for Gas Transmission and Distribution, dated October 16, for full compliance with the decision published in the tenth issue of the Official Gazette.
The House of Representatives’ decision said that any new procedures or contracts or amendments to any previous agreements regarding sovereign wealth such as oil, gas and gold should be halted until an elected government was in place, saying any action or pledge to any country or entity that violated the decision would be considered invalid.
The letter came after eight experts in the oil sector had addressed several sovereign bodies regarding the National Oil Corporation's negotiations, under the supervision of the High Council of Energy, with the Emirati consortium ADNOC, the French oil giant Total and the Italian oil company Eni, to develop the “MN 7” field in Hamada Al Hamra.
The experts recommended the field not be withdrawn from the Arabian Gulf Oil Company's supervision, saying that the corporation and its companies dealt directly with companies, some of which lack experience and capabilities and there was no transparency in their procedures, which wasted the opportunity for competition and thus obtaining the best offers and the lowest prices.
They also said that the field was discovered a long time ago and its reserves were confirmed, but it was not placed on the priorities of development plans despite the fact that the Arabian Gulf Company had the capabilities to develop it and already prepared a plan to do so.
They added that the field was close to the oil sector infrastructure, which made connecting it to the infrastructure less expensive in the development process, explaining that the National Oil Corporation had the ability to provide the budget for that, and it could talk to the government to obtain the necessary funds.
