Oil conference in Geneva April 19-20 on opportunities for investing in Libya
INTERVIEW - Libya says wants U.S. oil firms back
By Abdelaziz Barrouhi
TUNIS, April 7 (Reuters) - Libya's energy minister Abdullah Salem al-Badri wasted no time on Wednesday in inviting U.S. oil firms to return to Libya two days after U.N. sanctions were suspended.
''We invite U.S. firms which were our associates in the past to return to the Jamahiriya (Libya) and continue production,'' Badri told Reuters in a telephone interview from Tunis.
''Our doors are open to talk with them and to facilitate their operations and their return to Libya,'' he added.
But unilateral U.S. sanctions dating back to the 1980s mean U.S. firms are unlikely to return to Libya any time soon, and it is European firms which filled the gap left by the Americans then who are likely to benefit from the easing of sanctions.
U.S. oil companies, Exxon and Mobil, withdrew from Libya in 1982, a year after the United States imposed a trade embargo on Libya. Five other companies, Amerada Hess, Conoco, Grace Petroleum, Marathon and Occidental, remained in Libya until 1986, when President Ronald Reagan ordered them to cease activities there.
U.N. sanctions imposed in 1992, were suspended on Monday after Libya handed over two men suspected in the bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. The U.S. State Department said that even though Libya had turned over the suspects for trial by a Scottish court in the Netherlands, Washington would not remove its own sanctions yet.
''We need to have additional concerns alleviated (by Libya) before we will address modifying sanctions,'' State Department spokesman James Rubin told reporters in Washington.
Another deterrent is the U.S. Iran-Libya Sanctions Act of 1996, which penalises any company investing in the energy sectors of Iran and Libya.
''This law is not respected,'' Badri said, referring to deals concluded recently between European oil firms and Iran.
Badri, describing Libya as ''a virgin for exploration,'' said he was ready to negotiate both with European companies and U.S. companies not previously involved in Libya.
''Libya is an important state in terms of its oil reserves and production, and a market which is very close to Europe and the European oil firms. We invite these (European) firms to enter much more (in Libya),'' Badri said.
Badri said an international oil conference would be held in Geneva on April 19-20 on opportunities for investing in Libya.
Several European oil companies, including Italian, French, German, Spanish and Austrian firms, are active in Libyan oil exploration and production, accounting for a third of Libya's oil output of 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd).
Foreign experts have said the U.N. sanctions, coupled with the U.S. embargo, delayed a number of field developments and oil recovery projects. Production from some Libyan fields has been in decline because of a lack of spare parts.
''The suspension of U.N. sanctions will enable swift and easier acquisition of equipment and spare parts,'' Badri said.
He added that the end of an air ban would make it easier for the estimated 3,000 foreign oil workers to travel in and out of Libya while reducing costs for their companies.
(Abdelaziz Barrouhi, newsroom, 2161-787538, fax 787454)
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