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LIBYA PLANS

Total eyes big investment in N Africa

Vienna, August 22, 2012

Total has big plans for developing its E&P activities in North Africa and is eager to invest more widely in Libya and explore and develop new resources, said the vice president of Total E&P North Africa.

Jean Daniel Blasco was speaking in an interview with The Energy Exchange to discuss the organisation’s opportunities in Libya and North Africa.

“For the year to come, we have two development projects in Algeria, Timimoun and Ahnet, that we would like to move forward,” Blasco added.

Libya has commenced activities on rebuilding its economy at an accelerated rate. The

IMF has reported that the Libyan economy is expected to surge by nearly 117 per cent in 2012 with oil production levels reaching 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) to 1.95 million bpd by 2015.

The offshore Al Jurf field has a capacity of 45,000 bpd. Oil production by Total had reached 55,000 bpd in Libya, but had decreased drastically when the civil war began.

“After the civil war, Total’s main challenge was to support its common operating company with National Oil Company Libya (NOC Libya), Mabruk Oil Operations, to resume production,” said Blasco.

“The two fields Al Jurf (offshore) and Mabruk (onshore) are now back to their pre-war production level.”

According to Blasco, the challenges faced by Total in Libya in addition to supporting development activities of Mabruk Oil Operations, were to re-start its exploration activities.

Libya’s proven oil reserves amount to 47 billion barrels and Total is interested in expanding its opportunities in Libya, such as new exploration rounds.

Total is active in exploring potential offshore resources in Libya and other countries of North Africa.

“In Libya, we are already participating in production from Al Jurf field, located offshore Tripoli. Two exploration wells are planned in 2013 for this area,” Blasco said.

“In Egypt, we are operating the East El Burrulus Block, located deep offshore, where two exploration wells should be drilled in 2013. We are also interested in the recent exploration round launched by EGAS. In Mauritania, we are operators of the Block C9, where we plan to start a 3D seismic campaign by year-end.”

“There is a lot to do with Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) activities on existing fields before starting costly Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) projects,” he added.

Blasco stated that the last development project in Usan, deep offshore in Nigeria, has involved a record 60 per cent of local content man-hours.

“We hope to be successful in Egyptian offshore. In Mauritania, we expect our frontier exploration, both onshore and offshore to be successful. For the long term, non-conventional hydrocarbons in mature basins might represent bright perspectives for the oil industry,” Blasco concluded.

Blasco will participate at the seventh annual North Africa Oil and Gas Summit to be held from November 6 to 8 in Vienna, Austria. This summit is the only event that covers the entire North African region with representation from Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Morocco and Mauritania. – TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Total | investment | libya | North Africa |

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