Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.25
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has announced plans to allow foreign oil companies to invest again in the country’s oil production.
“We intend in the coming months to lift our self-imposed moratorium since 2011 on foreign investment in new projects to achieve the best national interest for the Libyan oil sector and for Libya as a state,” said NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla, according to the message posted on the company’s website.
In a keynote address at Chatham House’s Middle East and North African Energy conference, Sanalla said NOC-driven projects to expand oil production could create a virtuous circle of domestic economic stimulus and security, while raising Libyan oil production to a forecast 1.25 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2017 and 1.6 million bpd by 2022.
He pointed out that Libya’s oil sector had suffered from chronic under-investment.
Alongside with Nigeria, Libya was exempted from the output cut deal during the meeting of OPEC countries held in Vienna Nov.30.
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