Invitations to tender had been sent to 15 potential bidders. Six bids from drilling rig owners were found to be valid. A total of nine companies declined due to rig unavailability or simply did not respond.
Subject to clarification of the submitted bids the full technical and commercial evaluation is expected to be completed by September 30, 2009. Internal AuDAX Resources and ETAP approval for award of the contract is expected to be completed around October 20, 2009.
The Sambuca prospect appears to be one of the largest undrilled structures in the Mediterranean Sea with a total P50 recoverable resource potential of 270 million barrels of oil equivalent.
