RIYADH, 30 September — Saudi Arabia has given until Nov. 1 for international oil giants to respond to its final offers on proposed $25 billion gas projects.
The Saudi negotiating team has already presented the final offers to ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell, which lead three consortiums of international companies picked to implement the projects.
“If they reject the offers, it means the negotiations have collapsed and all agreements and preliminary commitments will be deemed null and void,” a high-level source told Arab News.
The final offers include additional areas for gas excavations, the source said and rejected reports spread by the companies that they were given areas that do not contain much gas.
The source also pointed out that Saudi authorities had increased the rate of return from downstream facilities to 15.5 percent, which is the highest compared to the rates offered for similar projects in the United States, Europe and other countries.
