An economic summit held this week in Tripoli, Libya focused attention on the North African country’s vital oil and gas industry, even as leaders look to attract foreign investment and stabilize production after years of disruption.
The Libya Energy and Economy Summit brought together government officials, industry executives and experts for two days of talks on jumpstarting the country’s stalled energy sector. Over 1,300 participants attended from more than 30 nations including regional powers like Turkey and European countries with long histories of investment in Libya such as Italy, Spain and France.
Officials outlined plans to launch new licensing rounds for oil and gas exploration rights by the end of 2024 – the first such offering to international firms since 2007. Libya aims to boost output and exports after losing billions in potential sales due to clashes that have repeatedly forced facilities offline. Just last week, the country’s largest oil field at Sharara was shuttered by protests, costing 300,000 barrels per day.
“We have set the short-term goal of raising production capacity to 2 million barrels per day, and the new licenses will be key for attracting investment to make this target possible,” said Khalifa Abdelsadek, a board member at Libya’s National Oil Company (NOC). Rehabilitating infrastructure dating from the 1960s also remains a challenge, he added.
Bringing more stability to the oil and gas industry will be crucial for Libya’s economic dreams overall. The country hopes to grow its GDP from around $30 billion now to $250 billion in coming years. Hydrocarbons currently account for 40% of Libyan GDP.
Some help may come from a pool of assets owned by Libya’s sovereign investment vehicles that were frozen abroad during the fall of ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Officials called for finding a mechanism to free up some of those assets specifically for reinvestment into the oil industry.
“We want to put billions of dollars belonging to the Libyan people back to work rather than just sitting frozen in European banks,” said Economy Minister Mohamed Al-Hweij.