NICOSIA, May 10: Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi has been given full authority to swiftly conclude the multi-billion dollar Natural Gas Initiative with foreign oil majors, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reports in its Monday edition.

The minister on May 6 requested senior-level meetings with the lead companies, ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch/Shell, to wrap up talks within the next two weeks, the industry specialist said.

In a letter sent to the chief executive officers, Nuaimi said the (Saudi) government has reiterated its commitment to execute the Core Ventures (CVs) very soon, and invited them for a meeting in Riyadh within a few days.

The kingdom remains committed to the successful and timely implementation of the Natural Gas Initiative projects and we remain hopeful that the projects ... can be implemented based on the framework of the government final offer of September 5, 2002, MEES quoted Nuaimi as saying in the letter.

I will spare no effort to ensure that we succeed in these efforts and look forward to working with you in a spirit of partnership and cooperation, the minister added.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal announced Tuesday that agreements with foreign firms have been reached on power, water and petrochemical plants associated with the projects.

What remains now is technical issues which have been referred to the petroleum minister to conclude the negotiations, the prince, who heads a ministerial committee conducting negotiations with the foreign firms, said.

The agreements open the way to signing a final accord with six foreign oil majors for CV1 and CV3 which require investments of about 20 billion dollars.

ExxonMobil has the lead role in CV1, while Dutch Royal/Shell has the lead in CV3. The second project, CV2, was shelved to reassess its economic situation, according to Prince Saud.

MEES said the consortia will be required to accept the existing terms or reject them.

The kingdom was expected to proceed swiftly with plans to relaunch the initiative if the lead companies ... fail again to respond positively, MEES said.

Saudi Arabia signed preliminary agreements in June 2001 with eight international oil companies for the development of the mega gas projects, but the final deal has proved elusive as deadlines have come and gone. —AFP