Joined: 05 Oct 2005
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São Paulo – Petrobras, the Brazilian state-owned oil company, has been pre-approved to participate in bids for natural gas exploration in Libya, an Arab country located in North Africa. The news was disclosed yesterday (18) by the Website Gulf News, based on information published by newspaper Financial Times. According to the European newspaper, the Libyan government has recently approved a list of 50 foreign companies, including the world's leading multinationals in the sector, to explore natural gas in its territory.
According to data supplied by the Libyan National Oil Company (NOC) and disclosed by the newspaper, Libya has proven natural gas reserves of 1.5 trillion cubic metres. Currently, the Arab country produces 76.5 million cubic metres of gas per day, but the goal is to increase that output up to 107.6 million cubic metres. Natural gas, according to the Financial Times, is still under-explored in the African nation. Foreign companies should enter the market precisely by investing in the sector. Besides Petrobras, also approved to participate in bids for the Libyan gas field were United States and European companies ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, Total, ENI, and also the Russian Lukoil, Petronas, from Malaysia, and ONGC Videsh, from India. The country is attractive in terms of gas production, according to the article published by Gulf News, due to its proximity to Europe. Libya's position is favourable for exporting gas to Europe, the Americas, and India, according to the article. Petrobras has already been exploring and producing oil in Libya since 2005. In February of that year, the Brazilian company won, in the Arab country, a bid for exploring 15 Libyan oil blocks. The victory marked the comeback of the Brazilian state-owned company to the Arab world, 25 years after leaving Iraq, when the country nationalized its oil reserves. Petrobras has been making various investments abroad. Last year, the company increased by 127% its volume of investments in foreign oil exploration, refining and transport. The company invested 7.1 billion Brazilian reais (US$ 3.7 billion) in 2006. Early this year, incidentally, the Brazilian government stated that it would seek new natural gas suppliers for domestic consumption, due to problems with Bolivian supplies, and even cited Libya as a possible supplier. The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the Libyan president met late last year, before the Africa-South America Summit, held in Nigeria, and discussed increasing bilateral cooperation between the two countries. According to a news report disclosed at the time of the meeting, one of the matters discussed was the possibility of new operations by Petrobras in Libya. Oil-based economy The Libyan economy depends on the oil sector. The commodity answers to 95% of the Arab country's exports, and for one quarter of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Last year, Libya's GDP totalled US$ 49.5 billion, according to information on the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce website. Agriculture accounts for 7.3% of the Libyan economy, industry for 51.3%, and the services sector for 41.4%. Libya produces 1.72 million oil barrels per day, and exports 1.3 million barrels. The Arab country has a population of six million people, and its capital is Tripoli. |
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