BP is to resume operations in Libya after reaching a new deal with the Libyan government.
“During the meeting, BP announced the lifting of the state of force majeure starting on 15 May 2012, and return to carry out exploratory activity at onshore and offshore areas belonging to it in Libya,” Libya’s NOC said in a statement on its website yesterday.
NOC said its chairman Nouri Berouin held a meeting on Tuesday with Michael Daly, BP’s executive president for exploration, at the NOC’s headquarters.
BP declared force majeure in February 2011 as civil war broke out in the country and the company withdrew its staff.
Under former CEO Tony Hayward, BP signed a $900 million exploration contract in 2007 for large untested areas of the country including a block the size of Kuwait.
According |BP’s website, BP and the LIC will explore around 54,000 square kilometres of the onshore Ghadames and offshore frontier Sirt basins, equivalent to more than ten of BP’s operated deepwater blocks in Angola. Successful exploration could lead to the drilling of around 20 appraisal wells.
During the exploration and appraisal phase, BP will acquire 5,500km of 2D seismic and 30,000km2 of 3D seismic and will drill 17 exploration wells.
BP’s oil contract was speculated to be associated with the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi amid a wider a détente between Britain and the Gaddafi regime, which the British government has denied, despite BP lobbying for Megrahi’s transfer.
The news follows Shell’s exit from its current exportation operations in the country, reported yesterday.
