Libyan O&G industry may be called without exaggeration a pillar of the national economy.  It is the main source of currency revenues and provides for 95% of its total volume. 25-30% of GPD also comes from oil industry, where most of the country’s working force is engaged. Libya possesses 42% of the proved oil reserves in Africa and 3% globally. The proven oil reserves in Libya amount to 2.8 bn tons.

 

Libyan oil is characterized by good quality, low contents of sulphur and little production costs. The principal field is Sirte with the estimated deposits of 24 bn barrels. The largest shelf field is Al Buri, which is located on the border with Tunis (3.7 bn barrels).  Besides, Libya has 12 other oil fields with the total volume of reserves amounting to 1bn barrels. Most of its territory has not been explored yet. According to the estimates of specialists there should be other big fields.

 

Libyan O&G industry is controlled by the state. Oil production is managed by the Libyan National Oil Company. The National Oil Corporation of Libya controls more than half of the domestic oil industry. Its oil-producing capacity exceeds 40 m tons a year.

 

Among NOC subsidiary structures Agoco (Arabian Gulf Oil Company) has the highest oil production rates – 450,000 barrels a day. Another subsidiary of NOC, Waha Oil Company, ranks 2nd. WOC was founded on the basis of Oasis Oil Co., a joint venture of NOC and American companies Conoco, Marathon and Amarada Hess. It produces 400,000 barrels a day. Sirte Oil Company (SOC), which also makes part of NOC, recovers 110,000 barrels a day.

 

Libyan fields are connected with the Mediterranean terminals by a network of pipelines. Yet, NOC is going to expand its pipeline network in the offing and spend some 150-300 m USD to this end. 

 

Libya, which has undergone economic isolation since late 1980s, needs substantial investment.  However, it can’t complain of the lack of pretenders to get this newly emerged market. That is why projects in any sphere are likely to be a field of tough competition. Russian companies try to penetrate this market as well. Among them are Siberian Service Company, Soyuzneftegaz, Tatneft, Lukoil and 3 Gazprom’s subdivisions: Stroitransgaz, Sibneft and SIBUR. A specialized company, Gazprom Libya, was initiated for working in this country. It is registered in Tripoli.

 

As a result of tenders in 2006-2007 Gazprom received the right on surveying and recovering carbon dioxides in the promising licensed lots №19 on the Mediterranean shelf and №64, located 300 km south of Tripoli. Over 45 companies took part in the tender.

 

The development of lot №19 became another huge project of Gazprom in Lybia. In December 2007 it exchanged the actives with BASF in order to receive 49% in Libyan oil concessions С96 and С97 as well as the ones belonging to Wintershall AG. The contracts on concessions will be valid till 2026. The concessions include 9 fields. The largest of them is Ас Сарах (As Sarah). The current production is over 6 million tons a year. Geological prospecting works are continued on the fields with activities, aimed at supporting the current level of production at concession С96 and boosting production at concession С97.

 

Strineftegaz, Soyuzneft, Tatneft also opened their missions in Libya, as operations are cannot in nature be run here without representations. Representation of Tatneft in Libya was opened back in June 2005. Having won a tender, Tatneft received the right on developing a field in the basin of the Gadames and became the first Russian company to enter the oil market of Libya. After an international tender in December 2006, which featured 46 oil companies from different countries, Tatneft received 3 another big lots with the total area of 16,000 square km. At the moment the company runs 4 lots on the conditions of production sharing.  The results of exploration drilling suggest that there should be significant increase in deposits and production of the Libyan oil.

 

The Americans, French, Italians and Chinese try to compete with the Russians. The conditions of participation in Libyan projects are very hard: The percentage of oil offered under the production sharing agreement usually doesn’t exceed 12% of the recovered volumes.

 

The 38th Tripoli International Exhibition held in April 2009 featured a wide exposition of the Belarusian organizations producing equipment for seismic measurements, CT units and services in oil production and exploration. 70 Belarusian companies, ministries and departments took part in the exhibition.

 

Representatives of Belneftekhim and BelNIPIneft met the administration of NOC during the exhibition. The specialists of the National Oil Corporation were sincerely surprised by a wide range of services, offered by Belorusneft. Its service divisions provide a full cycle of operations from surveying and exploration to sales of the refined products. At the moment Libya conducts geologic exploration of new territories and enhances recovery at the producing fields. The current production is planned to be raised up to 1.5 million barrels a day by 2010. The production enhancement operations are done on a small scale as an experiment. Belorusneft is going to register its representation in Libya and take part in tenders in the offing.

 

Visitors got extremely interested in exposition of Fidmash, famous producer of service equipment.  By the way oil service is not in such demand in Libya as drilling and development of new fields. At the moment most of such jobs are performed by international service companies like Halliburton, Shlumberger, BJ Services. Arabian service companies are present at the market as well: NBS (joint venture of Qatar and Libya), Sobesco (Egypt). The coiled tubing is rather expensive here: $40 000 a day. And the number of units is quite few. That is why this new market seems to be luring for equipment producers. Though most of the production operations today are performed in Libya with flush method and flow stimulation is in low demand, it already has a fund of old wells in need of service. It means that the demand in modern service technologies and equipment is going to be on a rise.