Nine international oil companies (IOCs) have made it through to the second stage of the bidding process for the development of 11 oil and gas fields in the country.

A statement from the Oil Ministry announced that 38 companies had submitted their applications earlier this year and that nine had been successful.

There were two Russian state firms among the shortlist, in addition to Cairn Energy, Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp, Oil India and state firms Kazakhstan, Vietnam and Angola.

Forbes reports that the prequalification process of the two bidding rounds is assessed on legal, financial, technical, training and health and safety aspects.

The deadline for prequalification was extended until February 15th to give IOCs the opportunity to provide all documentation necessary to support their bid and pay all processing fees.

The ministry expects to sign the new contracts from the second round in the latter half of this year.

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