SOFIA, May 6 (Reuters) - U.S. oil firm Anadarko Petroleum plans to take part in tenders for deepwater gas and oilexploration in Bulgaria's Black Sea waters, a Bulgarian seniorofficial said on Wednesday.
Bulgaria, eager to reduce its near total dependence onRussian gas, has opened tenders for exploration of two blocks inits Black Sea waters and expects bids in September.
Delyan Dobrev, head of the energy parliamentary commission, met with Anadarko's head for international negotiations, EricFry, during an oil and gas conference in Houston.
"Anadarko plans to participate in the tenders," Dobrev saidin a statement after the meeting.
Statoil and Exxon Mobil have said they willconsider bidding in the tenders for the Silistar and Teresoffshore blocks which cover an area of 7,000 and 4,000 squarekilometres respectively.
The two are close to the Neptune block in Romanian Black Seawaters, where Austria's OMV's has said it couldproduce up to 84 billion of cubic metres of gas.
Royal Dutch Shell and the Turkish PetroleumCorporation have also started deepwater exploration in Turkishwaters of the Black Sea, just a few kilometres from the Silistarand Teres blocks, Dobrev said.
This, and initial soft tests of the two blocks has raisedBulgaria's hopes of finding oil and gas deposits anddiversifying its gas supplies which are currently come almostentirely from Russian gas exporter Gazprom.
The Balkan country hopes to issue 5-year permits forexploratory drilling.
France's Total along with Austria's OMV and Spain's Repsol are expected to start drilling foroil and gas in the Han Asparuh offshore block, Bulgaria'slargest, in the first quarter of 2016. (Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova; editing by Jason Neely)
