Five Japanese enterprises won international tenders Monday to acquire the rights to develop a combined six oil fields in Libya, the firms said.
The deals involving Nippon Oil Corp., Mitsubishi Corp., Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Teikoku Oil Co. and Inpex Corp. mark the first oil exploration concession ever given to Japanese firms in Libya. Inpex joined hands with major French oil firm Total in the bid.
The oil projects are likely to be the biggest involving Japanese companies since a group acquired the concessions for the Sakhalin project in Russia. The Libyan fields are estimated to have the eighth-richest reserves in the world.
Many in Japanese business circles hope the deals in Libya will help stabilize Japan's oil procurement amid stiff competition with other countries, including China, for increasingly high-priced oil, analysts say.
The Japanese firms will put up a total of 20 billion yen just for the exploratory phase, in which they will confirm how much oil is in the fields.
A Teikoku Oil official said that once the oil deposits are confirmed, the consortium will begin production "from around 2011 to 2012."