The Zallaf Oil subsidiary of Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) on 2 September signed a $100mn contract with UK engineering firm Petrofac for development of the 16,000 b/d Erawin project located in Libya’s deep southwest. The award marks an important step for Libya which has for years struggled to kickstart projects that are key to its efforts to boost output from 1.3mn b/d to 2.1mn b/d (MEES, 11 June). Political instability, a lack of funding and weak security continue to present huge risks (MEES, 10 September).
Ten years of near-continuous chaos since Libya’s 2011 revolution, have deterred NOC’s key foreign upstream partners from sanctioning even modest investments. Such partners include ConocoPhillips, TotalEnergies and Hess at the 300,000 b/d Waha consortium where several expansion projects have been languishing for years (MEES, 11 June). Repsol, the key foreign partner at the 300,000 b/d-capacity El Sharara fields is also a major player, but it has reduced its position in recent years. (CONTINUED - 965 WORDS)
