UPDATE 1-Libya offers first post-sanctions oil licenses
16/08/2004 14:49
LONDON, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Libya on Monday launched its first upstream oil and gas licensing round since U.S. sanctions were lifted, offering 15 onshore and offshore areas in one of the world's most favoured exploration hotspots.
The OPEC member's first open bid round for upstream concessions will close January 10, 2005, according to information on the National Oil Corporation's (NOC) website. A final agreement should be signed in the second half of that month.
It will be the first time in 18 years that American companies will be allowed a chance to compete for acreage in the country, as U.S. sanctions were lifted in late April after Tripoli said it was scrapping its weapons of mass destruction plans.
Prospective bidders will hope the new process is swifter than recent upstream licensing efforts, which have dragged on for years amid direct negotiations with mainly European companies.
Any new Exploration and Production Sharing Agreements (EPSAs) will be under newly revised terms, called EPSA-4, which analysts expect to be more flexible than the previous three incarnations.
A Libyan official told Reuters it would be the first open bidding round for acreage in the EPSA era, which began in 1974.
Tripoli has also been at work on updating nearly 50-year-old legislation that governs oil investment, but it was unclear whether this would apply to the new bid round.
Libya's vast under-explored territory and relatively cheap onshore recovery costs make it an attractive location for investment, analysts say. It ranked second in the world for new ventures in an annual poll by UK-based consultants Fugro Robertson.
The bid round offers 15 exploration areas composed of four blocks each, although only two or three of the blocks are on offer in some areas. There are three areas in the Murzuq basin, where Spain's Repsol has recently had exploration success.
Officials will make two presentations of the blocks on offer and discuss the contractual framework, the second in London on September 14.
European companies such as Italy's Eni , Repsol and Austria's OMV have in recent hears secured prime acreage without the added competition of American majors or independents, but U.S. companies say they are anxious to make up for lost time.
The Oasis Group -- ConocoPhillips , Amerada Hess and Marathon -- are still negotiating their return to assets frozen in 1986. Occidental Petroleum also has frozen assets in Libya.
The north African state currently produces about 1.6 million barrels per day of crude and is aiming to reach 2.1 million bpd by the end of this decade.
((Reporting by Jonathan Leff; email:
Jonathan.Leff@reuters.com; tel: +44 207 542 8978; fax: +44 207
542 4453)) ((Reporting by Jonathan Leff; editing by Brian Killen; tel +44
207 542 8978))
Enviado: 16/8/2004 15:01