UPDATE 1-Liberia may have over 1 bln barrels in oil resources
* Third exploration bid round ends in December
* Sees first oil well drilled in 2010
(Adds details)
CAPE TOWN, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Liberia may have oil resources of over a billion barrels, with the first well expected to be drilled next year, a senior national oil company official said on Tuesday.
Marie Leigh-Parker, NOCAL's senior vice president for administration and finance, said the first well would be drilled by Anadarko Petroleum (APC.N) next year.
"We are hoping to get more than a billion barrels of oil," she told Reuters on the sidelines of an Africa oil conference.
Liberia also expects to conclude the bidding process for off-shore oil exploration blocks 1 to 5 by the end of this year, with some 11 companies, including majors, interested so far.
Leigh-Parker said NOCAL has given Hong Kong Tong Tai, a Hong Kong/Chinese international petroleum corporation, until Nov. 15 to amend their bid for blocks 6 and 7 or it will include the blocks, which NOCAL has offered to the company, in the third bidding round.
"We told them that by the 15th of November we have to finalise the deal or we include the blocks in the (third) bid round," she said.
Oil companies exploring in the country also include Oranto, Broadway Petroleum, European Hydrocarbons, Spanish oil company Repsol (REP.MC) and Tullow Oil (TLW.L). (Reporting by Agnieszka Flak and Wendell Roelf; editing by James Jukwey)
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