Opec producer Libya needs to bring in more international partners to increase oil and gas production over the next few years, energy executives and officials said.
media Oil Corporation (NOC), Libya’s state oil company, plans to increase output to two million barrels per day in the next three to five years, from about 1.2 million bpd currently.
The country, which has the largest crude reserves in Africa, is also preparing to issue bids for exploration areas by the end of 2024.
“We still have fields yet to be explored, including those in the Mediterranean and central regions, where new oil and gasfields will be discovered,” Mohamed Oun, Libya’s Oil Minister told the Libya Energy & Economic Summit on Saturday.
Citing Opec data, Mr Oun said that demand for fossil fuels would continue to grow over the next few decades.
The oil producers’ group expects crude demand to rise to 116 million bpd by 2045 from 102 million bpd currently.
Libya has emerged as an important supplier of natural gas to Europe after Russian exports were cut following its invasion of Ukraine.
Luca Vignati, director of upstream at Eni, said he wanted Libya to avoid sharing the fate of many countries that ceased exploring for new oil and gas amid energy transition efforts, only to end up becoming fossil fuel importers.
“That’s the first red line that we wish Libya never crosses and we are trying to make investments … in order to avoid this,” he said.
Mr Vignati also urged the government to make Libya “more open” for potential suppliers and partners.
Last year, Eni, BP and Algerian energy company Sonatrach announced the resumption of their operations in the North African country after a 10-year absence.
In January 2023, Eni and NOC signed an $8 billion gas production deal, which could result in a production of up to 760 million cubic feet of gas.
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