Tripoli, 24 August:
British multinational oil company BP has announced . . .[restrict]plans to start its $2 billion deep-sea drilling program next year, under a joint Exploration and Production (E&P) agreement with the National Oil Corporation,.
Since the lifting of Force Majeure, in place for ten months from February 2011, a new agreement between NOC and BP was signed in May. At the time BP’s Executive Vice-President for Exploration Dr Michael Daly said: “We look forward to working with the NOC and our partners in the Libyan Investment Authority, to safely implement our drilling programme.”
Since May, BP has been making plans to resume operations in Libya. These include reopening its Tripoli offices and advertising for contractors for logistics and underwater geological surveying.
BP already holds 3D seismic data covering 31,000 km2 of offshore blocks in the Sirte basin and onshore Ghadames basin, undertaken since the signing of its 2007 Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement (EPSA) with NOC.
The Revolution brought significant delays to the E&P work of foreign oil companies. BP has now predicted that the drilling of exploration wells will start before the end of 2013.
The 2007 EPSA committed BP to five offshore and 12 onshore wells. This latest announcement suggests that BP’s initial E&P activities will focus on the offshore wells. [/restrict]
