Author: Michel Cousins

By Michel Cousins 

The NOC’s growth plans over the next five years will be showcased at the 5th Libya Energy Week in Cairo on 3-5 December. It is the co-host of the event and participants will include a sizeable slice all its top management. These include the chairman, Farhat Bengdara, his senior advisor for upstream, Bashir Garea, board member for downstream Masoud Suleiman, the new head of investment affairs, Hisham Najah, director of gas Rida Elmodeer and the director of agreements and contracts, Ramadan Benshaban. 

Also scheduled to take part in the event, organised by international energy industry consultants IN-VR, are numerous figures in the energy industry in Libya. These include the chairman of Jowfe Oil Technology, Khalid Omran Blaou El-Ferjani and OMV exploration manager in Libya Zarko Sever-Vitez. Also taking part are numerous international figures already linked to the Libyan oil and gas industry or interested in it. Altogether there will be 30 speakers at the conference and workshops over the three days. Some 300 attendees are expected. 

Day One will see workshops on how to enter the Libyan energy market and on decarbonisation and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS). Day Two will focus on upstream and midstream plans and Day Three on downstream, gas and new infrastructure requirements. 

Subjects for discussion will include infrastructure projects, gas opportunities, diversification and policies on natural resources. There will also be reviews of recent developments involving Libyan oil companies including AGOCO, Mellitah Oil & Gas and Sirte Oil. 

The organisers say that, as with previous Libya Energy summits, the event will not only be a platform on which the NOC’s plans will be presented but also a networking event, bringing together the NOC, its affiliates, private sector players, local service companies, Libyan officials and international investors. The organiser promise some 50 one-on-one meetings with Bengdara and with the NOC team. 

The event will also see a number of major announcements from the NOC, according to the organisers, along with a Libya Energy Awards ceremony. 

An engineer working at the Sharara field in southwest Libya said today, Tuesday, that major progress had been made in the maintenance operations on one of the two main tanks in block 115. The source told Libya Energy that the works were 90 percent complete, compared to 75 percent last month. He added that the tank, with a capacity of 100,000 barrels, is expected to be fully operational again within two weeks to a month. 

He also said that its reinstatement would help production to be increased in line with the plans for Sharara’s output  to  reach 300,000 b/d  by the end of 2024.  This would also be done by continuing to drill new wells, he noted.

Oil production at the north Hamada field operated by Nafusah Oil Operations now exceeds 10,000 barrels a day, according to announcement today by the NOC.  The figure was set as the target rate for the first stage of the field’s development.  The field is located in Contract Area 47 of the Ghadames Basin.  

Nafusah Oil is currently working on preparing the two other wells, A-1 and A-4, in order to bring them into production by the end of November. This which will result in total production of 14,000 barrels a day at the field.

The NOC congratulated Nafusah Oil for its work in achieving the result.   

British Petroleum (BP) is looking to expand its involvement in Libya, particularly in exploration and development, according to the NOC. It also says that the UK-based company is interested in providing new systems aimed at boosting oil production. A BP delegation was in Tripoli on 21 October for talks with the NOC about cooperation.

According to the NOC, the BP team confirmed during the meeting that Libya is one its target list for investment in field exploration and development.

BP already has three concessions in Libya which were awarded in 2007, one offshore in the Sirte basin and two onshore in the Ghadames basin. However, it pulled staff out of the country in 2013 for security reasons. Then, in 2018, it signed a Letter of Intent with the NOC and Eni under which the Italian energy giant would acquire half of BP’s 85-percent share in the concessions and effectively be the operator for BP’s interest. At the time, the then CEO of CP, Bob Dudley, called the agreement an “important step towards returning to our work in Libya”.

In January this year, BP and the LIA which owns the remaining 15-percent stake in the concessions signed an agreement in Cairo to enhance their partnership in the development of the fields.

In its statement about yesterday’s meeting, the NOC also said that BP is actually preparing to start drilling operations for the first well in Area B in the Ghadames basin.

NOC chairman Farhat Bengdara and board members had follow-up talks today in Tripoli with the international accountants and consultants Deloitte about the proposed transformation plan on governance and transparency in the NOC.

Bengdara also met with the NOC team that is preparing the new concession licensing round to discuss the procedures and announcement of the tender round.  The team also attended the meeting with Deloitte.

Akakus Oil expects production at its Sharara field to soon exceed the field’s previous capacity of 300,000 barrels a day, according to a source. The increase is a result of new wells bring drilled and others that are planned.

On 20 October the company said that output at Sharara was at 274,365 b/d. It has also said that wells coming on stream will produce around 15,000 b/d.  The combined figures would bring the output to some 289,000 b/d, slightly over the 288,000 b/d figure given by a source at the field on 16 October.

Akakus had announced on 7 October that it had completed the drilling of two development wells, Nos. A41H and A44, in the NC115 block in the Sharara field, west of Obari. Each has a production capacity 3,500 barrels a day, making a total of 7,000 barrels a day. Initial results showed that both wells contain high-quality hydrocarbon-source rock and reservoir characteristics. They were expected to enter into production in the near future.

A week later it announced that a further three wells were brought on stream, increasing production capacity by a further 8,000 b/d. The wells are Nos. R-35, R-36 and B-51 at the oil fields, R-NC115 and B-NC11.

The total for all new five wells is 15,000 barrels.

Production at the Sharara oilfield in south-east Libya rose to 288,200 barrels a day during the past 24 hours, a well-placed source at the field has told Libya Energy today, 16 October. 

It is highest level of production since the force majeure declaration was lifted on 3 October. The source added that during the same 24 hours 282,000 barrels – 98 percent of production – had been dispatched via the pipeline to the terminal at Zawiya for export.

According to the source, production may reach between 295,000 b/d and 300,000 b/d day within a fortnight providing improvements and development continue and there are no leaks in the production facilities and pipelines

On 6 October, just three days after force majeure was lifted, it was reported that Sharara was producing 240,000 b/d.  It means that in ten days, it increased output by 42,000 b/d, a 17.5 percent increase. 

The source attributed the increase to thorough maintenance in the field during the last two yearsand the opening of a number of new production wells. 

Output had already been growing since the field’s last closure in January Following it production had ranged between 240,000 and 260,000 b/d. According to the source, after that happened, the field’s production rose to about 270,000 b/d in May, June and July before the most recent shutdown.

Akakus Oil Operations has announced that it is ready to add three new wells to its oil line production in the Sharara field. It will increase output to 8,000 barrels of oil a day when the wells are operating at full capacity.

The company’s media office said that during the coming days the wells, Nos. R-35, R-36 and B-51, at oil fields R-NC115 and B-NC115 will be brought on stream.

Akakus is working to increase production across the board. On 7 October 2024, it announced the drilling two new oil wells, Nos. A41H and A44, at the location A – NC115 in the Sharara field, each with a production capacity of 3,500 barrels a day.

An initial analysis of the new wells has indicated that both have high-quality potential specifications. 

Sarir Oil Operations Company has carried out maintenance on four oil wells, two of which are now operating back at pre-existing production rates. The other two, Nos. B22 and B15, are now producing more than 1,000 b/d each. Well No. B22 had been out of service for technical reasons ever since Sarir took over the concession from the previous operator, Wintershall, in late 2020.

Sarir also completed maintenance of three other wells without the need to use drilling rigs. Theobjective was to reduce production of associated water. The work resulted in oil output at wells Nos. B14, B24 and B46 increasing by 2,000 b/d.

Plans to build a major refinery in Tobruk were one of the main issues under discussion on 9 October in a financial and technical review by the NOC of the 2024 performance and 2025 plans of its affiliate, AGOCO.

The technical and financial review, at AGOCO’s Benghazi headquarters, also covered the development of the Sarir refinery, a report on health, safety and the environment and the proposed budget for 2025.

The meeting was attended by AGOCO’s chairman, Mohamed Ben Shatwan, and members of the management board and, from the NOC, Fadl Masoud Shalouf, general manager of petroleum industries, and his delegation.

The existing Tobruk refinery has a capacity of 20,000 b/d. The plan is to build a 300,000 b/d refinery on a 15-hectare site close to the pipeline linking Tobruk to the Messla-Sarir oilfields.

The NOC said on 8 October that daily production rates had now risen to 1,133,133 b/d of crude oil and condensate in addition to 206,666 b/d of oil equivalent in gas. 

This recovery comes just five days after force majeure was lifted.  Production rates are expected to fully return to pre-closure levels within the next few days, the NOC added.  

The production of oil on 20 July, shortly before force majeure was declared for the Shahara field, Libya’s biggest, was 1,279,386 b/d..