UK Lasmo Sees Progress in Libya Oil Venture
LONDON, May 26 (Reuters) - Britain's Lasmo said on Friday it had passed the last hurdle in getting its large Libyan Elephant oil development under way by forming an operators' management committee for the venture.
The move, reported by a Lasmo spokesman, opens the way for the development, one of the biggest discoveries in Libya in recent years, to proceed with engineering procurement contracts.
"All the structure is now in place for development," the spokesman said. "The process now will be to invite tenders for an engineering and procurement contract."
The process of assembling the committee was completed recently with the appointment of Mohammad Abdel-Salam, a reservoir engineer with Libya's National Oil Drilling Company, and Ali Shkat, head of external audit at Libya's National Oil Corp (NOC).
Abdel-Salam, who will chair the committee, and Skhat were nominated by state-owned NOC, the spokesman said.
Operator Lasmo holds 33.33 percent of the venture, Italy's Agip another third and a consorium of South Korean companies comprising Korea National Oil Corp (formerly Pedco), Daewoo, Hyundai, Majuko and Daesung holding the remainder.
Lasmo's development plan for Elephant was approved by Libyan authorities in first quarter of last year but the company has been waiting to form this committee to proceed with the project.
The Elephant field with an estimated 500 million barrels was discovered in late 1997 in Libya's Murzuk Basin.
Foreign firms interested in doing business in Libya have been closely watching the Elephant project to see how long it would take for the giant development to get off the ground.
Other investors in Libya include France's Totalfina-Elf, Austria's OMV and Spain's Repsol-YPF.
OPEC member Libya has been trying to attract more foreign spending after the United Nations suspended sanctions a year ago when it handed over for trial two suspects accused of blowing up Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
Tripoli controls average daily output of 1.4 million barrels a day and has proven reserves of some 29.5 billion barrels. |
