CAPITAL: TRIPOLI
MONETARY UNIT: DINAR
REFINING CAPACITY: 343,400 B/CD
OIL PRODUCTION: 1,407,500 B/D
OIL RESERVES: 29.5 BILLION BBL
GAS RESERVES: 46.4 TCF

Libya was top choice in 2000 for oil companies seeking new E&P ventures.

The changing political environment and prospects for world-class production plays catapulted Libya from the 20th position in the previous survey run in 1998.

Late in the year a Repsol-YPF group discovered oil on Block NC186 in the Murzuk basin.

A1, the block's first exploration well, cut a significant oil column in Hawaz sandstone. The well flowed 2,500 b/d of 41° gravity oil on a production test.

The well is on southern NC186 about 30 km from El Sharara field production facilities on Block NC 115.

Repsol operated blocks NC186, NC187, and NC190 on behalf of a group of four European companies including OMV of Austria, TotalFinaElf of France, and Saga Petroleum Mabruk of Norway.

Exploration started in May 1998 after the Libyan government approved an exploration and production sharing agreement signed with National Oil Co. covering NC186 and NC187. NC190 was added in summer 2000.

Crude oil production from the basin started in December 1996 from giant El Sharara field located on nearby Block NC115. Repsol Oil Operations operated El Sharara on behalf of NOC (first party) and Repsol-YPF, OMV, and TotalFinaElf (second party). The field was producing 160,000 b/d of 44° gravity sweet crude in late 2000.

El Sharara field averaged 150,000 b/d in 1999, and the operating companies delayed a planned increase to 180,000 b/d because of OPEC quota limits.

Well A-1 is 31 km north of the El Sharara field facilities, which have spare capacity.

TotalFinaElf was in talks with the government to expand its acreage holdings. The company confirmed it was in talks to build on its interests in Mabruk oil field, which it operated in the Sirte basin, and the El Sharara development.

Libya's licensing round of 130 blocks, including 20 offshore, attracted the interest of oil companies including Sweden's Lundin Oil AB, Italy's Edison Gas, and UK independent Lasmo PLC. Lundin had interests in the En Naga North and West developments.

Royal Dutch/Shell was understood to be negotiating with NOC to enlarge its presence in Libya's E&P scene.

Also in the Murzuk basin, LASMO discovered 560 million bbl Elephant field on Block NC174 in 1997, the discovery well flowing 7,500 b/d of sweet, 38° gravity crude. Four wells and a 3D seismic survey later, LASMO declared Elephant commercial in February 1999. LASMO operated the block and had a 33% interest.

Production was to begin in 2002 at 50,000 b/d from seven or eight wells. Oil would be exported via a 75 km, 20 in. pipeline to El Sharara field and then 780 km along the 30 in. line to the Zawiyah refinery on the Mediterranean. Production would rise to 150,000 b/d from 30 producing wells and 20 water input wells in a second phase.