VOL. XLVI

No 23

9-June-2003

SAUDI ARABIA

End Of The Road For Gas Initiative In Current Form

After two years of negotiations and many missed deadlines, the Saudi Natural Gas Initiative (NGI) on 5 June reached the end of the road in its current form. The lead international oil companies (IOCs) from Core Venture (CV) consortia 1 and 3 (ExxonMobil and Shell) on 4 June sent responses to an ultimatum received from Oil Minister Ali Naimi in May (MEES, 2 June). In that letter, Mr Naimi, in effect, asked...