The head of the Libyan Oil Corporation, Farhat bin Qadara, announced the start of developing the strategic plan for the oil and gas sector in the country.
Today, Wednesday, the KPC, in cooperation with the American Kearney Company, launched the development of the strategic plan for the sector, which includes the KPC and its subsidiaries.
And it revealed the establishment of the Office of Strategic Programs, which will undertake the implementation of the plan to develop the Libyan oil sector, according to the data seen by the energy platform.
Libya has the largest gas and oil reserves in Africa, in addition to its close proximity to Europe that may make it one of the largest suppliers of energy to the continent, but its exports have been disrupted for a long time due to conflicts.
Axes of the strategic plan
Bin Qadara stressed that the main objective of the strategic plan is to work to overcome the obstacles and challenges facing the oil and gas sector in Libya, which affects the most important source of income in the country.
He said that the plan is based on 4 strategic axes, as follows:
- Structuring the institution and its subsidiaries, building capabilities, focusing on young elements, and the process of training, qualification and development.
- Increasing Libyan oil production to two million barrels per day in the coming years, which is technically feasible.
- Focusing on gas, which is increasingly important globally, and is expected to overtake oil in the next stage, as it is being worked on to be a source of electricity generation in the coming decades.
- Treating environmental problems and reducing emissions through an initiative to stop flaring gas from oil fields within 10 years, and focus on producing electricity from renewable energy sources.
Libyan gas
The head of the Libyan National Oil Corporation was surprised that his country, despite its large gas reserves, is not self-sufficient in this energy source.
He said: “The gas we have is used to generate electricity and operate a number of factories, primarily iron and cement, and by 2025, production will decline significantly.”
He added that the natural decrease in the gas produced from the Al-Waqqa and Dar Al-Salam fields requires investment in exploration and exploration operations to compensate for this shortfall.
Libya recently signed a deal with the Italian company Eni to develop two gas blocks in the offshore area west of Tripoli.
The new deal – in which the value of investments amounts to about $8 billion – aims to develop gas fields with reserves close to 6 trillion cubic feet, within about 3 years, with expectations of producing 850 million cubic feet per day for a period of 25 years.
Renewable energy
Ben Kadara stressed that selling gas to Europe will enable his country to develop projects to produce electricity from renewable energy, which serves its strategy to reduce emissions and fulfill its international obligations.
He added that the “Green Stream” gas pipeline linking Libya with Italy, which is currently being used to transport gas to Rome, could be converted in the future for clean energy exports to Europe.
Libya pumps gas to Italy through the “Green Stream” pipeline – which was established according to an agreement between the National Oil Corporation and the Italian company Eni equally, although it is not operating at its full capacity.
The gas is pumped from a gas compression station in the Mellitah complex, and sent via a 520-kilometer line to another gas-receiving station on the island of Sicily. Most of Libyan gas exports are produced from the Bahr al-Salam field, and from the Wafa field in the southwest of the country, and are sent to the Mellitah complex for processing before exporting to Italy.
Libya extracts 1.5 billion cubic feet per day of gas, and intends to increase it to 4 billion, according to Farhat bin Qadara’s statements.
oil production
Bin Qadara stressed that the Corporation is facing challenges, the most important of which is the world’s trend towards alternative energy and dispensing with oil, and a new strategic plan must be prepared that aims to benefit from oil and increase production.
The head of the Libyan National Oil Corporation stressed that his country aims to increase oil production to two million barrels per day instead of 1.26 million, within 3 to 5 years.
Over the past 10 years, Libya has faced reluctance and withdrawal from major international energy companies, in light of security instability. This prompted the country’s oil production to collapse.
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