OT news
TRIPOLI/LONDON (Thomson Financial) - UK oil giant BP PLC is to sign a 900 mln usd oil and gas exploration deal in Libya with the north African country's state-owned National Oil Corp, said Shokri Ghanem, head of the NOC. The deal, once signed, will mark BP's return to Libya after more than three decades. BP left in 1974 when Libyan leader Muammer Gadaffi seized the assets of foreign oil companies.
Ghanem made the announcement ahead of a visit to the oil-rich nation by
British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Blair flies out of London today and will visit Tripoli for talks with
Gadaffi and then will travel to Sierra Leone and South Africa. He last visited
Libya in March 2004 after Gadaffi shocked the western world by announcing that
he was abandoning Libya's weapons of mass destruction.
A BP spokesman in London declined to confirm Ghanem's statement.
"We are still in discussions with the NOC. We're looking forward to reaching
an agreement but nothing has been signed yet," he said, adding
BP officials, led
by chief executive Tony Hayward, will be in Tripoli in the next few days.
BP signed a memorandum of understanding with NOC in 2005 to explore
potential opportunities in Libya's oil and gas industry. It was producing oil at
Libya's Sirt Basin until its withdrawal from the country in 1974.
Early last year, press reports claimed BP and the NOC were discussing a
multi-billion dollar natural gas exploration and development project that could
supply the North American or European markets.
BP rivals BG Group PLC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC secured upstream projects
in Libya as early as 2005.
