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Gold/Mining/Energy : Lundin Oil (LOILY, LOILB Sweden) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tomas who wrote (1718)	6/20/2000 7:21:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2742

Libya: Lasmo Plans Big Spend - Middle East Economic Digest, :June 9 The UK's Lasmo is moving closer to a decision on investments worth several $100 million in new Libyan development. A new operators' management committee, appointed in late-May, will manage development of block NC174 and assess, as part of its responsibilities, the best contracting strategy for developing the concession. Lasmo has not decided whether it will invite bids for one large package, with winning companies sub-contracting, or if it will let several smaller tenders. "It is often simpler to follow the classical model of one large package, especially in Libya, but this is one of the issues to be discussed by the committee," says a spokesman. He declined to give an estimate for the value of the contractual works. The company aims to begin producing 50,000 barrels a day (b/d), rising to 150,000 b/d by 2003. The committee is chaired by Mohammed Abdulsalam, formerly Operations Manager at National Oil Drilling Company. The two other members are Ali Shkat, formerly head of external audit at the National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Duncan Godsmark, a former project manager for Lasmo's Libyan operations. The trio need to draw up a budget for the development, which will be put to the managers' committee for approval, before contracts can be let. Lasmo is actively studying the 40 new blocks which NOC put under offer at a May meeting in Tripoli (MEED 19:5:00). "We have a few ideas of the areas we know best and we have got a reasonable idea of the kind of things NOC and Libya are looking for," says the spokesman. The new areas are in addition to the 97 offered at a Geneva meeting in April 1999, immediately after UN sanctions were suspended (MEED 30:4:00). NOC is understood to be aiming to have awarded all of the acreage under offer within the next 12 months. Contracts will follow the third type of exploration and production sharing agreement (EPSA-3), on slightly modified terms, NOC has said. One of the modifications involves fixing the operator's gas share as production goes up. However, companies expect terms to be flexible. "Issues such as ring-fencing will be fully negotiable," says a spokesman for Lundin Oil.