Libya To Award 3 Oil Contracts To Foreign Cos Soon
By Abdulla Fardan
MANAMA, Bahrain, June 25 (Dow Jones) - Libya's National Oil Corp. is expected to award three upstream oil packages to international oil companies in the next few weeks, or perhaps as soon as the end of this month, Abdulkarim Ahmed, NOC's chairman, told the Middle East Economic Survey Monday.
The three packages being offered are blocks in the Sirte, Murzuk, Cyrenaica and Kufra basins.
Ahmed didn't provide further details on the bidding companies, but said the development of these blocks is part of Libya's plan to increase its overall oil production capacity.
In this respect, he said the U.K.'s Lasmo PLC (U.LSM) is currently working to bring the first stage of the Elephant field in the Murzuk area into production in 12-14 months with an initial output of 50,000 barrels a day. This production is expected to rise to 150,000 b/d one year later.
Sweden's Lundin Oil AB (S.LOI) will also bring 40,000 b/d on-stream from the En Naga North and West Fields in block NC-177, while TotalFinaElf S.A. (TOT) is currently developing offshore block NC-137 with a planned output of 40,000 b/d, Ahmed said, according to MEES.
Ahmed said his country is also planning to boost its natural gas capacity, which currently stands around 1.5 billion cubic feet a day. |
