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By Yuka Obayashi and Rania El Gamal
TOKYO/ABU DHABI, April 27 (Reuters) - Japan's Inpex Corp became the first Asian oil company to get a stake in anew 40-year onshore oil concession in Abu Dhabi, joiningFrance's Total in developing the United Arab Emirates'(UAE) biggest oilfields.
Nine Asian and Western companies bid for stakes in the AbuDhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations (ADCO) concession aftera deal with the Western majors dating back to the 1970s expiredin January 2014.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) said on Monday it hadgranted Inpex a 5 percent stake in the new concession.
The fields produce 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) andoutput is expected to rise to 1.8 million from 2017.
Total became the first oil major to renew the concession,putting peers under pressure to improve terms after the localpartner said the French firm made the best offer.
Last week, ADNOC's director general said there was nodeadline for awarding further stakes in the concession,suggesting Abu Dhabi was in no rush to make a decision aboutother bidders in the tender.
The Inpex concession gives Japan, which imports almost allof its oil and is the fourth-biggest importer, the ability toprocure oil without passing through the chokepoint of the Straitof Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, Minister ofEconomy, Trade and Industry Yoichi Miyazawa told reporters.
"This is an epoch-making event and this pact will contributegreatly to Japan's stable procurement of oil," Miyazawa said.
It is the first major stake in an oil concession Japan hasobtained since 2009. Japan holds stakes in oilfields producing610,000 bpd and the ADCO concession will boost the figure by 15percent when production is expanded to 1.8 million bpd.
Inpex did not disclose the value of the deal due to aconfidentiality agreement, but Japanese public broadcaster NHKsaid earlier it was expected to be worth $1.1 billion.
Other bidders for the concessions include OccidentalPetroleum Corp, Italy's ENI, China NationalPetroleum Corp, Norway's Statoil and Korea National OilCorp.
The concession signed with Total was effective from Jan. 1,2015, and covers Abu Dhabi's 15 principal onshore oilfields thatrepresent more than half of the Gulf emirate's production.
Four oil majors -- ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Total and BP -- had each held 9.5 percentequity stakes in the ADCO concession since the 1970s.
After the deal expired last year, state-run ADNOC took 100percent of the concession as political leaders in Abu Dhabiweighed up whether to bring in Asian firms or stick with oldpartners, industry and diplomatic sources said.
Shell and BP have also put in new bids, while Exxon hasdecided against bidding, sources have told Reuters.
For Japan, which imported 3.45 million bpd of oil in 2014,the UAE accounted for about 24 percent of the supply.
Inpex also owns a stake in the ADNOC's offshore oilconcession, which is set to expire in 2018.
Japan's next challenge is to win a renewal of that stake.
"The deal on the onshore oil fields underlines a sense oftrust in Japan by Abu Dhabi and could add momentum to ournegotiation for the offshore concession," Ryo Minami, directorat the oil and gas division at Agency for Natural Resources andEnergy, told reporters.
Japan, which aims to boost self-sufficiency in gas and oilto 40 percent by the 2030 fiscal year, will raise the ratio tonear 25 percent with the latest deal from 23.3 percent in the2013/14 year. (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi and Osamu Tsukimori in TOKYO andRania El Gamal in ABU DHABI; Editing by Richard Pullin, AlanRaybould and Mark Potter)
