Upstream, April 30: LIBYAN Oil Minister Abdallah Salem El-Badri is keeping open a window of opportunity for US companies still barred from doing oil business in the country under America's unilateral Iran-Libya Sanctions Act.
Addressing a Libya investment conference in Geneva last week, El-Badri reiterated his desire for US sanctions to end "so that the American oil companies are able to resume their operations in Libya".
Representatives from US companies were among delegates in the audience, including many of those that were active prior to the US embargo's introduction in the 1980s, such as Amerada Hess, Conoco, Exxon and Occidental.
A "standstill agreement" was signed with some of the US companies in 1986 allowing them to return to their operations but this has now expired. However, the minister assured them: "We are keeping them a good share. They are welcome any time they want to resume their operations."
Another conference speaker, Conoco Middle East director Brooks Buxton,
highlighted the major role that US companies had played in the early days of the development of Libya's oil and gas industry. The former Oasis group including Amerada Hess, Conoco and Marathon had averaged production of 850,000 barrels per day by the late 1970s, he noted.
US influence has permeated the Libyan oil sector through the extensive use of American technology and through the training many Libyans received either working with US companies or attending US universities. While Tripoli is keeping relations warm with US oil companies, the existence of sanctions poses a major stumbling block.
However, the sanctions are due either to expire or be renewed in mid-2001 and US oil players are already hopeful that date could signal a change in policy. This, though, will depend greatly on politics and for the foreseeable future the Libyan market looks set to be dominated mainly by their European counterparts.
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