TRIPOLI —
Libya’s state energy firm urged its foreign oil and gas partners to resume
exploration and production Tuesday assuring them security had begun to improve
dramatically after clashes earlier this year.
اضافة اعلان
Rival
administrations in east and west have vied for power since March, in a standoff
that has hampered Libya’s efforts to sharply ramp up output in response to a
surge in European demand for non-Russian oil and gas.
“The
National Oil Corporation (NOC) calls (on) the international oil and gas companies with whom
it has signed oil and gas exploration and production agreements to lift the
force majeure declared by them,” the firm said in a statement.
Force majeure is a
legal measure allowing companies to free themselves from contractual
obligations in light of circumstances beyond their control.
NOC said its
appeal followed a “realistic and logical analysis of the security situation,
which has begun to improve dramatically.”
The firm expressed
“readiness to provide all necessary support ... along with providing a safe
working environment in cooperation with the civil and military authorities.”
Libya aims to
raise its oil output from around 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) currently to
2 million bpd by 2027, NOC Chairman Farhat Bengdara said last week.
On taking up his
post in July, Bengdara lifted force majeure at all of the country’s oil fields
and export terminals as an eastern-based militia abandoned a three-month
blockade of six of them that had cut output by 400,000 bpd.
Since Russia
invaded Ukraine in February, European countries have looked to alternative
supplies from Africa to help end their dependence on Russian oil and gas.
Libya, which
boasts the biggest proven crude reserves on the continent, has been wracked by
years of conflict and division since a
NATO-backed revolt toppled dictator
Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Prime Minister
Abdulhamid Dbeibah was appointed as part of a UN-guided peace process following
the last major fighting in 2020, but the eastern-based parliament and military
strongman Khalifa Haftar say his mandate has expired.
In March,
parliament appointed a new government to take his place, but the rival
administration has failed to install itself in Tripoli.
NOC chairman
Bengdara was appointed by the Dbeibah government but has vowed to “work to
prevent political interference” in the vital sector.
NOC has predicted oil
revenues alone will amount to between $35 billion and $37 billion this year.
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