Algeria invites bids for oil exploration

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria, launching a new oil and gas exploration and production licensing round, invited prequalified companies on Tuesday to bid for acreage that contained what it called high potential petroleum resources.

A statement on the Energy and Mines Ministry Web site said the deadline for bids for 10 zones containing 25 blocs was 10.00 a.m. (0900 GMT) on December 20, 2009 and that bids would be opened 30 minutes later.

Contracts for the winning bids would be signed on January 16, 2010 at 1400 (1300 GMT), the statement said.

"The selected zones are in different Algerian sedimentary petroleum basins offering a high potential in petroleum resources," said the statement by the ministry's National Agency for the Redevelopment of Hydrocarbon Resources (ALNAFT).

The major Ahnet basin, which was removed from a previous licensing round, was included in Tuesday's tender.

The statement said prequalified companies would receive a general technical presentation on July 27, and data rooms of detailed information on each project would be open in a session from August 15 to October 22.

(Reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and Anthony Barker)