Libya to bring new developments on stream

Libya's oil sector is bringing new developments on stream to halt further declining production capacity now running at around 1.4 million bpd.
This year is crucial for Libya, which hopes to bring some 200,000-250,000 bpd of crude oil on stream from new developments to make up for a loss in production of an estimated 300,000 bpd since 1993.
Denied the enhanced recovery technology needed for its older fields since the US imposed unilateral trade sanctions against it in 1986, the North African country's biggest hope of stemming recent falls in overall capacity rides on the giant Murzuk field. Production at Murzuk is scheduled to reach 100,000 bpd by end 1997 from a first quarter target of 45,000-49,000 bpd. The $ 1 bn project is operated by Spain's Repsol in partnership with Austria's OMV and France's Total .If the Repsol project comes to full production in time, Libya can maintain capacity at 1.4-1.45 million bpd. Repsol said in January that it started producing a daily average of 20,000 bpdfrom Murzuk on December 13 en route to a short-term objective of 45,000 bpd.
Libya has been producing below its potential capacity -- estimated in the early 1990s at over 1.6 million bpd -- because of problems in maintaining optimum production from its mature fields, partly as a result of the US trade ban.Production at Murzuk targets 200,000 bpd in a second phase but the complicated field, which produces a high quality light crude, will need another year or two of appraisal.
Libya's biggest loss has been in the Waha oasis, where old fields developed by US companies in the 1970s lack the machinery needed to maintain reservoir pressure through gas or water injection. Waha used to produce 600,000 bpd but now it is about 350,000 bpd. More large field or cluster of fields being produced or operated by the Libyan state enterprises could produce more.Italy's Agip, Libya's biggest foreign oil partner, has started a gas gathering project near the offshore Bouri field as part of plans to boost recovery rates.
Among other new Libyan developments is the Mabruk field, operated jointly by France's Total, Norway's Saga Petroleum and NOC. Mabruk is producing 10,000 bpd with plans to recover one third of its estimated 1.3 bnb in reserves.
Germany's Wintershall AG, subsidiary of BASF, is producing over 80,000 bpd from its two concessions in Libya. Veba Oel of Germany, which has a 49 % stake in a joint venture with NOC, is producing 100,000 bpd at its five fields, up from 55,000 bpd last year, a company source said.
Independent estimates of Libyan production as well as data submitted by Tripoli to the OPEC secretariat show it produces close to its OPEC quota of 1.39 mm.