Libya Approves $9.86 Billion Plan to Boost Oil Output

Libya approved a 12.1 billion-dinar ($9.86 billion) plan to develop and upgrade 24 oilfields as the holder of Africa’s largest crude reserves seeks to boost output.

National Oil Corp. will work with state-owned companies and foreign firms operating in the North African country, “without the entrants of new parties,” to implement the plan, the Libyan government said in a statement posted on its Web site. The project will be funded through borrowing from local banks.
Libya, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, is seeking to raise crude production capacity to 3 million barrels a day by 2013, from 1.8 million now. The country has 5 billion barrels of oil untapped because they are difficult to develop or remote, accounting for 12 percent of its total oil reserves, according to the government.

The plan includes raising output from the Jalo oilfield by 100,000 barrels a day, with an investment of 1.6 billion dinars, according to the statement. Another 1.3 billion dinars will be invested to boost production from the Nafoora oilfield by 130,000 barrels a day.

Oil production from these fields declined after American companies withdrew from Libya in 1986 amid accusations that Muammar al-Qaddafi’s government was supporting terrorism, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Libya came under U.S. and United Nations sanctions in the 1980s and 1990s.

Bloomberg