By Tom Finn

DOHA, May 25 (Reuters) – Six worldwide oil corporations together with BP and Royal Dutch Shell Plc have bid to function Qatar’s largest offshore oil subject, two folks with information of the matter informed Reuters.

The different bidders are the sector’s present operator Maersk , in addition to Total SA, Chevron Corp and ConocoPhillips, mentioned the individuals who spoke on situation of anonymity as the data was non-public.

The folks mentioned state-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP) would award the contract for the oil subject, which is 80 kilometres (50 miles) off Qatar’s coast and at present produces round 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), within the second half of the yr.

Officials at Maersk, Chevron, Conoco and Qatar Petroleum didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Shell and BP declined to remark.

A Total spokesman mentioned CEO Patrick Pouyanne had confirmed its bid earlier this month.

Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk, which owns Maersk Oil Qatar, mentioned on May 4 it was concerned in a young course of and there was a threat it might lose the Qatari subject, its largest oil producer.

For years it was anticipated Maersk would renew its 25-year manufacturing settlement on Al Shaheen subject when its licence runs out in 2017.

But the Gulf state shocked the corporate final yr by placing out a young for the sector which Maersk Oil has been working since 1992.

A Qatari oil supply informed Reuters the Gulf state had invited worldwide majors to the tender as a result of it wished to boost manufacturing on the subject to 500,000 bpd.

Maersk Oil had initially deliberate for Al Shaheen’s manufacturing to achieve 525,000 bpd by 2010, after a 2005 subject improvement plan was authorized, however output remained at about 300,000 bpd, roughly half of Qatar’s each day crude output.

The oil reservoirs are notoriously skinny and unfold out throughout an enormous space, making manufacturing troublesome.

BP withdrew from a $4.3 billion undertaking to construct Qatar’s first liquefied pure fuel (LNG) plant in 1992, stating it noticed no monetary advantages to staying within the undertaking.

Since then, Qatar, a rustic of two.6 million, has gone on to turn out to be the world’s richest by per capita earnings and the biggest producer of LNG, which is fuel chilled to liquid for export on specifically designed ships.

A senior BP firm government informed Reuters in 2007 it was eyeing a return to Qatar’s upstream fuel sector after a 15-year hiatus and was concerned with offshore exploration areas and collaborating in initiatives to supply harder fuel reserves in Qatar. (Additional reporting by Ron Bousso in London and Bate Felix in Paris; Editing by Mark Potter)

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