2023-11-27 15:59:38
Libya’s state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) needs a $17 billion budget to increase national oil production to 2 million barrels per day in three to five years, its head said Farhat Bengdara during an interview.
Mr Bengdara told Alwasat TV on Sunday that there were no obstacles to increasing production, but there was a lack of funding, which was not up to the mark. of what it should be.
The NOC has a plan that includes projects to stabilize production and maintain pipelines and equipment, as well as projects to increase production, Bengdara said.
The main projects that would increase national oil production are related to the maintenance of pipelines that were installed in the 1960s, Bengdara said.
“These pipelines have expired and need to be replaced,” Bengdara said, calling it their “biggest challenge.”
“We promised to reach 1.3 million bpd and we reached 1.295 million bpd before the end of the year. But we are talking regarding infrastructure that was built in the 1960s and which was never maintained,” added Mr. Bengdara.
Oil production is Libya’s main economic source and accounts for around 90% of the entire country’s economy.
However, the political divide between two administrations vying for power in the east and west casts a shadow over the possibility of further investment to increase production in Libya, particularly following the failure of general elections aimed at unify rival parties in 2022, despite UN efforts.
Rival factions have repeatedly fought over control of oil production and revenues, fueling political chaos and threatening to undermine the peace process.
According to data released by the Central Bank, exceptional financial deals worth around nine billion Libyan dinars, or some $1.8 billion, were passed to the NOC during the first ten months of the year.
He added that the Government of National Unity (GNU) and the central bank were providing support. The government has approved a project to replace pipelines that run from the fields of the Oasis Basin and the Gulf of Sirt to the ports of Es Sidra and Ras Lanuf.
“We also have a project to replace part of the eroded pipelines from the Messla and Sarir fields to the port of Hariga, as well as another line project from the El Sharara field to the port of Mellitah,” did he declare.
Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in the NATO-backed uprising in 2011, oil production has been repeatedly hit in this OPEC member and North Africa’s third largest producer by groups blocking facilities. , sometimes to demand material benefits, but also as a tactic to achieve broader political goals.
“We have lost 70% of our storage capacity because of the wars,” Mr. Bengdara said.
He added that the plan was supposed to take the country to 2 million bpd “if there are no problems or developments beyond our control.”
Mr. Bengdara, governor of the central bank before 2011, was appointed head of the NOC in July 2022 by the GNU, replacing Mustafa Sanallah who had led the company since 2014. (Reporting by the Archyde.com newsroom in Libya; edition by David Evans)
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