TRIPOLI: Libya needs between $3 billion and $4 billion to reach an oil production rate of 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), the acting oil and gas minister, Khalifa Abdulsadek, told Reuters on Saturday, adding that a new license bidding round is expected to be approved by the cabinet before the end of January.
Abdulsadek said the Libyan economy heavily relies on oil, accounting for more than 95 per cent of its economic output.
“There is momentum in reconstruction and this can only be achieved by increasing the production,” Abdulsadek said.
Abdulsadek said the goal is not just to reach 1.6 million bpd but to further increase it to 2 million bpd.
According to National Oil Corporation (NOC), the national oil output reached 1,413,372 bpd on Friday.
The OPEC-member country was producing 1.6 million bpd before the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Abdulsadek said, on the sidelines of the Libya Energy and Economy Summit held in Tripoli, the bidding round would include three basins and from 15 to 21 blocks.
“The bidding will be in all the sedimentary basins in Libya, Sirte Basin,
Murzuq Basin, Ghadames Basin. Marine areas, pretty much everywhere,” Abdulsadek said. Agencies