By Ahmad Ghaddar
LONDON (Reuters) -Libya is set to offer 22 areas for oil exploration and development in its first such bidding round in more than 17 years, oil officials said on Monday, adding that deals will involve production sharing agreements.
The new bidding round, announced on March 3, comes as Africa’s second-largest oil producer and member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) seeks to raise its oil output.
National Oil Corporation (NOC) Chairman Massoud Suleman told an event for potential investors in London that areas on offer are split equally between onshore and offshore.
Libya’s current crude production has reached about 1.4 million bpd, 200,000 bpd short of its pre-civil war high, according NOC. It aims to raise output further to 2 million bpd.
Foreign investors have been wary of putting money in Libya, which has been in a state of chaos since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Disputes between armed rival factions over oil revenues have often led to oilfield shutdowns.
NOC Chairman Suleman told Reuters on the sidelines of the event that the round has already generated a lot of interest from international oil companies since it was launched in early March.
In January, Abdulsadek told Reuters the country needed between $3 billion and $4 billion in investment to reach output of 1.6 million bpd.
The bidding will involve acreage in some of the most prolific basins in the country, including the Sirte, Murzuq and Ghadamis basins as well as offshore Mediterranean, oil minister Khalifa Abdulsadek told Monday’s event.
A presentation by other NOC officials showed the areas on offer will be under a Production Sharing Agreement model, replacing the more stringent EPSA IV model which Libya adopted under previous bid rounds and which offered fewer returns to investors.
NOC expects to sign the new contracts between November 22-30.
(Reporting by Ahmad GhaddarWriting by Tala Ramadan and Nayera AbdallahEditing by David Goodman and Susan Fenton)
