“The development round is not the priority at the moment,” says Ahmed Aoun, project director at NOC. “We are concentrating on the gas licensing round, the restructuring of NOC and changes to oil and gas procurement legislation. There is no specific timeframe for the development round yet, but it is most likely to be in the second half of 2008.”
Shokri Ghanem. the head of NOC, confirmed in September that the round would not be tendered before 2008, despite an earlier statement by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, that Tripoli would launch the round in the summer.
“Discussions are still taking place in the NOC as to which fields will be part of the round,” says Aoun. “We have to think about what tendering model should be used and which fields need investment.”
The model will be similar to the tendering process for the country’s exploration and production-sharing agreements, but a smaller number of companies are expected to meet the prequalification criteria.
“There will be a transparent bidding process in which prequalified companies who have relevant experience elsewhere and who can bring both investment and technology will bid for the acreage,” says Aoun.
Bids are due in December for 41 exploration and production licences (MEED 14:9:07).