Apart from a small core team, Wintershall will temporarily fly its employees and their relatives out of Libya. Their return will be decided on the basis of the development in the country. 31 people (nine employees and 22 relatives) have left the country on Monday. Intensive efforts are currently underway to get the remaining employees in Tripoli and the production facilities in the Libyan Desert out of the country. “The safety of our local and international employees and their families is our highest priority,” said Member of the Wintershall Board of Executive Directors, Dr. Ties Tiessen.
“All of our colleagues and their relatives, both in the Libyan Desert and in Tripoli, are safe and well. The developments in Libya will be observed closely. In doing so, Wintershall is in constant contact with the German Foreign Office,” he added.
Wintershall has been active in exploration and production in Libya, one of Africa’s biggest oil producers, since 1958. Wintershall currently operates eight onshore oil fields in concessions 96 and 97 in the Libyan Desert. The facilities are approx. 1,000 km southeast of Tripoli.
Wintershall employs 453 people in Libya. 115 employees are non-Libyans, 72 of which are delegates. 30 German citizens as well as Dutch, Canadians and British work for Wintershall in Libya.
The company has had a local exploration and production presence in Libya since 1958. The largest reservoir from which it produces is the As Sarah oil field near the Jakhira oasis in Libya, where it also operates the country’s only facility that conditions associated gas from our fields and transports the resulting products, gas and condensate, for sale on the coast. In addition, Wintershall was awarded another exploration area in south-eastern Libya, covering over 11,000 square kilometers, in 2006.
Wintershall one of only a few firms that no longer flares the gas associated with crude oil production but continues treating the gas instead, thus making a significant contribution to reducing CO2 emissions. Wintershall has set itself the goal of ceasing the flaring of associated gas in routine production by 2012 at all production sites where crude oil is produced.
The company operates eight onshore fields around 1,000 kilometers southeast of Tripoli and 350 kilometers southwest of Benghazi in the Libyan Desert. The company also has an interest in the Al Jurf offshore field in the Mediterranean Sea off the Libyan coast. Wintershall had earmarked hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars on the development of existing fields and the exploration for oil and gas.
The expansion of existing onshore fields continued in 2008, and Wintershall also started developing new oil discoveries. In order to enhance recovery in the oil fields, a 142-km-long pipeline network is being built in the Libyan desert. With the commissioning of this pipeline, Wintershall is increasing the disposal of deposit water from 97.3 percent to 100 percent. This will make it the first operator in Libya to fully discontinue waste disposal via evaporation basins.
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