By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 14 May 2013:
A conference was held at the Radisson hotel Tripoli today by the Ministry of Oil and . . .[restrict]the National Oil Corporation (NOC) on the possibility of private sector financing of Libya’s hydrocarbon sector.
The rational presented for the need of private sector financing at the conference was that private sector financing could by-pass the cumbersome and politically affected process of state financing.
The conference was opened by NOC head Nuri Berruien and was attended by the GNC head of the Energy Committee, the head of the Libyan Businessmen Council, heads of local banks and various leading business and hydrocarbon sector leaders.
Berruien noted that Libya had plans to develop the offshore oilfields in partnership with Eni, the Hamada oilfields, petrochemicals and new refineries as well as the development of other oilfields which he estimated would need a total investment of about LD 50 bn over the next 5-6 years.
The NOC head also reconfirmed that a “committee was studying the new EPSA which should be ready by the end of the year”.
This seemed a subtle change to the line his boss, Oil Minister Abdelbari Al-Arusi, has been maintaining until recently, namely that new EPSA’s could be on offer by the end of 2013. [/restrict]
