Lundin Oil's Ian Lundin on Libyan Exploration: Company Comment
London, April 15 (Bloomberg) -- Following are comments by
Ian Lundin, managing director of Lundin Oil AB, regarding the
Swedish company's work to explore for oil in Libya.
''It's a very good time for a company our size to get more
involved in Libya. The government shows plenty of signs that it
wants us. They're expediting requests. There's definitely no
road blocks to slow us down.
''There is some talk about them announcing new terms and
exploration sites. We will be very interested in what they have
to say because we're looking to expand. Smaller fields there are
very commercial to develop, but when you get into the larger
fields the terms become very onerous.
''We're operating on block NC177 covering 10,000 square
kilometers. We've collected about 2,300 square kilometers of
seismic (detailing underground rock structures) and invested
about $50 million.
''We made two discoveries, the En Naga North field in January
1998 and En Naga West in September 1998, with proven
and probable reserves of about 71 million barrels.''
Capital costs for the project are about $130 million,
Lundin said. The company will lay a 100 kilometer pipeline from
the field to the nearest oil export pipeline, which will haul
the oil about 700 kilometers north to the Mediterranean. The
expected lifting of United Nations economic sanctions will make
work in Libya easier.
''For us we won't have to travel through Tunisia to get
there anymore. There will be direct flights, and that will make
it a lot easier to get into and out of the country. The Bank of
England also approved capital transfers into Libya.
''The biggest thing is the Murzuk basin (in Libya's southwest).
There's talk of 150,000 to 250,000 barrels a day --
even 500,000 barrels a day coming out of that region. That's
significant. We're not in that basin, but Libya is building its
production capacity to where it was before. They produced about
3 million barrels a day 20 years ago.'' Output today is about
1.3 million barrels a day. ''Eventually they'll have to increase their
OPEC quota.''
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