Nigeria will award licenses to about 47 oil blocks on August 26 under the 2005 bid round, which is expected to throw up "strategic downstream partners" in the nation 's petroleum industry.

The Department of Petroleum Resources said in a statement cited by local newspapers Tuesday that it has started issuing bid certificates to the qualified firms, including local and foreign firms, to this month's bid conference.

The statement indicated that all the 12 blocks put on offer in the deep offshore would be awarded while six on the continental shelf will also be awarded.

It said that six more blocks in the Niger Delta onshore would also be awarded while 13 of the 14 fields dedicated to downstream investors would be granted to the investors.

A breakdown of the beneficiaries shows that of the 13 blocks that would be awarded, winners will be "strategic downstream partners." Six of the blocks would be competed for by eight firms which have indicated interest in the Port-Harcourt and Kaduna refineries as core investors.

The statement added that another four oil blocks designated to promote independent power project schemes would be competed for by six companies while three other blocks would be competed for by three oil multinational companies in Nigeria.

The department said of the 370 applications received for the 2005 oil block offers, 34 applications largely from local firms wishing to acquire the 10 percent equity in the blocks, were disqualified.

The 2005 bid round in Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer, represents a major platform for the government to realize its ambition of raising the nation's crude oil reserves to 40 billion barrels by 2010.

Source: Xinhua