A significant oil discovery has been made in the Murzuq Basin in Libya. The field extends over two licences, and Hydro participates in one of these. The Spanish oil company Repsol is operator for the field.
The field was proved in the autumn of 2005, and subsequently five appraisal wells have been drilled. The operator estimates that the field may contain a total of of 1.26 billion barrels of oil, of which 474 million barrels of oil can be expected to be produced. A plan for development and operation (PDO) has recently been submitted to the Libyan authorities.
"Hydro participates in licence NC 186. Our ownership share in the field will be finally determined following a unitization process, where the owners reach agreement regarding how much of the discovery is located in each of the licences NC 186 and NC 115. This process will take some time," says Senior Vice President Frank Dinhoff Pedersen, responsible for Russia and Africa Hydro's unit for international business development.
He emphasises that this is one of the biggest discoveries that has been made in Libya for several years, and expects that it will rank highly in the list of the largest discoveries in the world during 2007.
Around 60,000 barrels of oil are produced every day in Murzuq from the licences Hydro participates in, and this is expected to increase dramatically in the years leading up to 2011. The new discovery will make a significant contribution to this increase in production.
Hydro has had a presence in Libya since 1999, participates in five licences - in one of which the company is operator - and has an office in Tripoli.