Libya signs 25-year oil deal with TotalEnergies and ConocoPhillips

TRIPOLI: Libya signed a 25-year oil development agreement on Saturday with France’s TotalEnergies and US-based ConocoPhillips, involving more than $20 billion in foreign-financed investment, Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah said.

Signed through Waha Oil Company, the deal is aimed at boosting production capacity by up to 850,000 barrels per day (bpd) and is expected to generate net revenues of more than $376 billion, Dbeibah said in a post on X.

A Waha source said the company’s daily output typically ranges between 340,000 and 400,000 bpd under normal operations.

Waha, a subsidiary of Libya’s state-run National Oil Corporation, operates five main oil and gas fields as well as several producing subfields, connected by pipeline networks that transport crude to the Sidra oil terminal and gas to processing facilities.

The government also signed a memorandum of understanding with US oil major Chevron and a cooperation agreement with Egypt’s oil ministry during the Libya Energy and Economy Summit being held in Tripoli.

The agreements reflect “the strengthening of Libya’s relations with its largest and most influential international partners in the global energy sector,” Dbeibah said.

Separately, Masoud Suleman, acting chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), said during the summit that the results of Libya’s first oil exploration bidding round in more than 17 years would be announced on February 11. Libya is one of Africa’s biggest oil producers and a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Foreign investors have been wary of putting money into Libya, which has been in a state of chaos since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Disputes between armed rival factions over oil revenues have often led to oilfield shutdowns.