Libya will provide Tunisia with 2 bn cmpy as from 2003

The gas pipeline which will link Libya with Tunisia will be operational in the year 2003 and supply Tunisia with 2 billion cm of gas annually, sources stated. Libyan head of state, Col. Moammer el Qaddafi, announced the decision to build the pipeline in October last year when he paid an official visit to Tunisia. Tunisian needs are currently covered by the country's own production, essentially coming from the Miskhar gas fields, coupled with supplies earned as tax from the trans-Mediterranean pipeline, which crosses Tunisian territory. But, by the beginning of the next century, the country could have a gas deficit of 3-4 bn cm per year. Tunisia recently concluded a gas contract with the Algerian national oil company, Sonatrach, to purchase 400 mm cm of gas a year, starting this year, for a 20-year period.
Tunisian-Libyan oil co-operation was given a boost recently with the signing of an agreement, under which Tunisia will purchase Libyan crude, petroleum products and LPG. In exchange, Libya will import Tunisian products. The value of the contract has been put at an estimated $ 250 mm, according to the sources.