Friday 10 December 2010

Libya discovers three new oil fields


Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) has announced the discovery of three new oil fields. The first discovery was made by Turkish Petroleum (TP) working on experimental wells B1-17/3, on Block 147, in the Morzuk Basin in southern Libya. Preliminary tests showed that the first well has the capacity to produce around 265 b/d. Further tests are expected to be carried out in due course.

The other two wells, said to be rich in both oil and gas, were discovered by a consortium of several companies affiliated with the NOC and the Libyan Investment Institution. Libya has estimated oil reserves of 60 billion barrels, and gas reserves in the region of 1,500 billion cubic metres.

In other developments, the head of Libya's OPEC delegation has said that Libya will not increase production if speculation drives oil prices to $100 per barrel, but will look to fundamentals to determine whether the group needs to hike output.

Reiterating his earlier point about output levels head of NOC Dr Shukri Ghanem said, "Once we feel that world demand is increasing and there is not enough supply in the markets in that case we will increase the production."

"There is a lot of oil in the market; there is no shortage, so putting more oil [in the market] would not be prudent," he added.

Source: Africa en ligne, Reuters

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focus and Libya Politics & Security.

No comments:

Post a Comment