LONDON, July 22: In the latest step in the opening of its huge energy reserves to foreign companies, Saudi Arabia invited tenders for three giant natural gas exploration projects at a meeting here on Tuesday.

About 40 hand-picked foreign companies attended the gathering to hear Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali al-Nuaimi, pitch the projects, each with an area of between 30,000 to 50,000 square kilometres.

Nuaimi described the conference as “an important landmark in the history of the kingdom’s petroleum industry”.

“This offering presents your companies with a historic opportunity to establish a long-term partnership with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” he added.

“We are committed to creating an environment that is even more attractive to private investment,” he said, according to a copy of his speech released to reporters. The meeting was held behind closed doors.

Companies interested in vying for the projects were told to bid soon after receiving final details sometime between now and mid-September, with a decision expected from Saudi Arabia by early next year, Nuaimi later told journalists.

Firms from Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Russia and the United States were invited to the meeting.

The tender offer comes just days after Saudi Arabia granted a major gas exploration and production project to a consortium led by Royal Dutch/Shell and also comprising French company Total and state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco.

Saudi Arabia, which sits atop the world’s biggest known oil reserves, has proven natural gas reserves of 224 trillion cubic feet.

The initiatives come close on the heels of the collapse of the Saudi Natural Gas Initiative (NGI) in its integrated form. —AFP