Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) has not set a deadline to award international oil companies (IOCs) with operating contracts on its proposed 40-year onshore oil field concession, the company’s director-general said.

On 29 January, the state-owned oil and gas producer awarded France’s Total with a 10 per cent stake in the new concession, named Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Petroleum Operations (Adco), but has yet to award further contracts.

Adnoc is thought to be looking for IOCs to represent 40 per cent of the new joint venture, which is responsible for the majority of Abu Dhabi’ s oil production.

“Whoever meets our conditions will be considered… there is no timeline,” Adnoc director-general Abdullah Nasser al-Suwaidi told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

He also said the list of companies in the running to enter Adco had narrowed from the original list of bidders.

Total was one of nine companies involved in the opaque bidding process to form a new concession. Since the announcement, there has been no word from any of the other bidders or the majority stakeholder Adnoc.

The original bidders were thought to be UK-based BP, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Italy’s Eni, Japan-based Inpex, Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC), US-based Occidental Petroleum, the UK/Dutch Shell group and Norway’s Statoil.

The new joint venture will replace the previous version of Adco – Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations – that expired on 11 January 2014 when Adnoc took 100 per cent ownership of the assets.

The original 35-year Adco joint venture was 60 per cent owned by Adnoc with BP, US-based ExxonMobil, Shell and Total each taking a 9.5 per cent stake and Portugal’s Partex holding a 2 per cent share.