Libya’s Minister of Oil and Gas, Mohamed Aoun expressed his hope that the study regarding the possibility of supplying gas from Nigeria to Europe through Libya would be completed.
Aoun added that “the economic benefit that Libya will accrue from this idea is the line tariffs from the use of Libyan land, and from the territorial waters.”
He noted that it is possible to work on arrangements with Nigeria to mutually benefit, through the associated works, such as construction, transportation, and guarding. As well as noting that transport companies in Libya, and foreign companies will be invited to participate.
Aoun confirmed that his ministry’s strategic perspective is to “exploit all available and expected energies in Libya.”
He noted that about 40% of the land area has not yet been explored. “There are many oil and gas discoveries that need to be developed, and therefore work was done to direct the institution to start developing these discoveries, especially since Europe now needs more oil and gas.”
He also pointed out that power stations and factories, such as cement and iron, are financed by the National Oil Corporation (NOC) with about one billion cubic feet of gas. Thus connecting new stations will take time, and no plans have been made to connect them to existing gas lines.
At the conclusion of his speech, Aoun stressed that any new gas discoveries will be distributed across all of Libya’s oil basins.
Notably, The African Energy Chamber expected oil production in Libya to reach 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2024. It noted that production may reach less than one million bpd by the end of this year, in the worst case.