Libya gains $ 5.4 bn from altering oil contracts
Libya has earned $ 5.4 bn in additional oil revenues from changes of contracts with four foreign companies in 2008,
state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) said.
"The changes of deals with four companies yielded $ 2.4 bn extra earnings to the Libyan side for the period between
the beginning of 2008 until the end of September," it said in a report assessing annual results from the oil sector
for 2008.
The report named the companies with which the deals dating back to the 1970s had been revised as Italian oil and gas
company ENI, Petro-Canada and two consortiums led respectively by US Occidental and Spain's Repsol. The changes made
to the contracts include among other measures slashing their production shares to 10 % or 15 %, NOC said.
"On top of the additional revenues of $ 2.4 bn from deal changes, the four companies accepted to pay a total of $ 3
bn as up-front payments," NOC added in the report.
NOC said negotiations were underway with other unnamed companies to reach similar changes which would boost oil
earnings further.
OPEC member Libya plans to nearly double crude oil production by 2012 with an investment of $ 30-$ 40 bn. It pumps
about 1.7 mm bpd of oil. It also wants to become a major natural gas producer and aims to increase production to 3 bn
cfpd by 2010, with a potential for 3.8 bn cfpd by 2015, compared with 2.7 bn cfpd now.
