By Obiabin Onukwugha
Libya’s National Oil Corporation has signed production-sharing agreements with several international energy companies following the country’s first licensing round.
The deals follow Libya’s 2025 bid round, under which the NOC awarded exploration acreage to foreign companies as the OPEC member seeks to attract investment and raise oil production capacity to 2 million barrels per day from around 1.4 million bpd currently.
The licensing round is coming nearly two decades after, the National Oil Corporation Chairman, Massoud Suleman, said on a social media post on Monday.
He revealed that the agreements were signed with Spain’s Repsol (REP.MC), and Turkey’s state-owned Türkiye Petrolleri, Italy’s Eni (ENI.MI), QatarEnergy, and a consortium comprising Hungary’s MOL Group (MOLB.BU), Türkiye Petrolleri and Repsol.
The NOC Chairman stated that the agreements reflected growing confidence in Libya’s oil and gas sector, pointing out that it will support exploration, development and production growth.
Reuters reported that Libya awarded exploration blocks in February to companies including Chevron, Eni, QatarEnergy and Repsol in its first licensing round since 2007, despite persistent political divisions between rival administrations in the country’s east and west.
