Libya to offer 22 areas for oil exploration with attractive terms for investors, officials say

Libya is set to offer 22 areas for oil exploration in its first bidding round for such investment in more than 17 years with new and attractive terms for investors, the country's top oil officials told a Libya Bid Round Roadshow in London on Monday.

The new bidding round comes in as Africa's second-largest oil producer and member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) seeks to raise its oil output.

The country's crude production has reached more than 1.4-million bpd, about 200,000 bpd short of its pre-civil war high, according to its National Oil Corporation.

The bidding will involve acreage in the Sirte, Murzuq and Ghadamis basins as well as offshore Mediterranean, oil minister Khalifa Abdulsadek said at the event.

Libya is exempt from Opec+ agreements to limit output.

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.

In January, Abdulsadek told Reuters the country needed between $3bn (R58.55bn) and $4bn (R78.05bn) to reach output of 1.6-million bpd.

Reuters