By Tom Westcott.
London, 23 August:
French Oil Company Total is keen to make further exploration and production investments in Libya, according to . . .[restrict]the company’s vice-president of the North Africa region.
“We are eager to invest more widely in Libya, to explore and develop new resources,” said Jean-Daniel Blasco, vice-president of Total North Africa in an interview with The Energy Exchange, organisers of the forthcoming North Africa Oil & Gas Summit 2012. Blasco said that following the recent elections, Total was “waiting for any opportunity, such as new exploration rounds.”
“Today Total E&P Libya’s challenges are to support development activities of Mabruk Oil Operations (MOO), and to restart its exploration activities.” Blasco added, “We have a worldwide experience of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) projects. However, we think that in Libya, there is a lot to do on Improved OiI Recovery (IOR) activities on existing fields before starting costly EOR projects.”
With operations suspended for six months, Total’s 2011 production of Libyan oil dropped to less than half of its 2010 figure of 55,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 20,000 bpd. Production has been increasing since September and Blasco said: “The two fields Al Jurf (offshore) and Mabruk (onshore) are now back to their pre-war production level,” adding that two further exploration wells are planned in the Al Jurf field in 2013.
Total was one of the first European oil and gas companies to return to Libya after the Revolution. It started pumping Libyan oil from offshore platforms in September 2011, and onshore sites in October. “After the civil war, our main challenge was to support our common operating company with the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC), Mabruk Oil Operations (MOO), to resume operations,” Blasco said. [/restrict]
