Libya’s NOC awards two offshore exploration concessions

Two international consortia have secured exploration concessions offshore Libya under the National Oil Company’s (NOC) 2025 open licensing round.

Eni will operate offshore exploration License O1 in partnership with QatarEnergy, with formal signature of the agreement expected in Tripoli by the end of this month.

The 29,000-sq km block is part of the offshore extension of the producing Sirte oil and gas province. Eni sees strong exploration potential, including in large areas without 3D seismic coverage that could house additional hydrocarbon accumulations.

There are also stranded oil and gas discoveries within the permit.

Eni will operate the concession, with the partners allocated a 100% stake during both the exploration and development phases. Over the initial five-year exploration period they plan to acquire 2D and 3D seismic acquisition and to conduct drilling activities.

Currently Eni is Libya’s leading offshore oil and gas producer, in partnership with NOC. Their current offshore A and E gasfields development, involving two new drilling/ production platforms, and their Bouri field gas utilization project, could both start up this year.

They are also working on a gas compression project for the offshore Sabratha platform.

This spans an area of more than 10,300 sq km in water depths extending beyond 1,500 m, situated 140 km northwest of Benghazi.