Libya to become the main source of crude for Italy and Europe within 5 years: Oil Ministry

Islamabad: The Ministry’s Media Office said it expected Libya’s oil production to increase within five years at a sufficient level, so that Libya would become the main source of crude for Italy and Europe.

He pointed out that the National Oil Corporation is holding talks with the Italian company, Eni, to develop the Hamada gas fields in order to achieve this goal.

The comments by the Media Office of the Ministry of Oil came on the back of the National Oil Corporation announcing Monday that the total domestic consumption of natural gas amounted to 1.130 billion cubic feet during the past 24 hours.

Giving a breakdown of this consumption, the NOC had reported that the General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) consumed 951 million cubic feet, the oil sector consumed 123 million cubic feet, the Libyan Iron and Steel Company (LISCO) and other factories consumed 50 million cubic feet, in addition to 6 million cubic feet being consumed by the country’s cement factories.

Earlier, the Minister of Oil and Gas, Mohamed Aoun, said on the sidelines of the OPEC meetings of in Vienna, “Work has been done to feed many power stations with liquefied fuel that is imported from abroad. That is why it was necessary to increase gas production.”

He added, “Libya exports gas to Italy, but not in the quantity that meets the demand for in Italy and Europe, although gas discoveries in Libya can achieve this demand, but after working on developing the discovered fields and starting work on them.”

It is worth noting that Libyan gas production amounted to 3.178 billion cubic meters during the first quarter of this year. According to Aoun, Libya is able to increase oil production to 1.4 and 1.5 million barrels per day in the year 2024, as part of its plan to raise production to two million barrels in the medium term.