Last week, the NOC’s new Chairman, Eng. Mustafa Sanallah, welcomed the international delegation of the 3^rd New Libya Oil & Gas Forum with a Keynote Speech highlighting the priorities of the NOC for the upcoming period. Based on the security challenges that the Libyan Government is dealing with, resuming production whilst ensuring human resources safety are areas of utmost priority for the corporation. The Libyan National Oil Corporation’s work spans across a number of areas at the moment, amongst which one aspect is enhanced oil exploitation. As the NOC representatives stressed, the world’s increasing energy demand would require fields that are currently producing oil to be fully exploited, and this is one of the NOC’s priorities. The NOC is also working with the Government on the establishment of the new petroleum law, based on which new agreements will be formed, whereby the beginning of 2015 will be set as an approximate timeframe for implementation of the new law.

As clarified by Dr. Najme Karim, Head of the Delegation, and Head of the Studies and Developing Oil Laws Committee at the Ministry of Oil & Gas, the new law is being developed by an expert and well qualified Committee since March 2013, and is due to be ready in the upcoming months, and will be validated by the new permanent Government. He supported the message of the Eng. Sanallah, stating that “The NOC is doing its best to bring back production to normal levels with the activities progressing on both upstream and downstream sectors.“ Dr. Karim concluded his speech highlighting that open communication was key in this transitional period for the country, saying “In this forum you can see the NOC’s commitment to keep in touch with the industry and give updates. We promise to have better conditions.” These words from the Head of the Oil Law Development Committee resulted in applause by the Forum’s delegation to Dr. Karim’s Keynote Speech.

A strong example of the progress in the NOC’s upstream development work is the newly established company Nafusa Oil Operations, which is beginning exploration activities at the Nafusa field in a joint venture with Medco International Ventures. The company’s Board Director, Mr. Mohamed Jamaledin, offered an insightful case study on their work so far, as well as the future plan, according to which the first oil is expected to be extracted by the end of 2016.

Dr. Mohamed Ellob, Head of the NOC’s Downstream Development Committee, which is working on the Master Plan for the country’s entire refining capacity, discussed the Committee’s work so far regarding the refineries and petrochemicals redevelopment, stressing that “If by 2035, the global energy demand will be doubled, the refining capacity should also be doubled”.

Mr. Bouaziz, the Commercial Vice President of Shell for the MENA region, focused his presentation on the ultimate oil recovery opportunities for Libya. He stressed that two thirds of the global oil resources are not utilized, and with the pressing energy demand Shell is considering Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) activities the theme of the future energy map.

Insightful presentations came also from the Mabruk Oil Operations Board Chairman, Mr. Fitouri Belhaj; BP’s Exploration Manager for Libya, Rob Satter; OPEC’s General Legal Counsel, Ms. Asma Muttawa; the NOC’s Head of Production Management, Mr. Anwar Agil; CITAC’s Africa Executive Director, David Bleasdale; ENAP’s Senior Advisor, Victor Briano; and Member of the UK Parliament and All Parliamentary Group for Libya Chairman, Daniel Kawczynski.

The Forum’s Advisory Committee board members also contributed with their expertise. These included; NDB’s Managing Director, Ed Evans; the General Manager of African Shield Petroleum Consulting, Carlos Venturini; the Consultant Geologist of David Boote Consulting; David Boote, and Nubian Consulting’s Managing Director, Daniel D. Clark-Lowes.

The 3^rd Annual New Libya Oil & Gas Forum was co-organised by IRN and Oliver Kinross and was chaired by Carlos Venturini and David Boote.

Total, OMV, Statoil, Gazprom Neft, Petrobras, Hess Corporation Libya, ExxonMobil, Sonatrach Libya (SIPEX), Crosco, Technip, BB Energy Group, British Arab Commercial Bank, Shell International Upstream, Yokogawa Middle East & Africa, Occidental Libya Oil and Gas, Petrofac International Limited, Egyptian Drilling Company, GE Oil & Gas, were amongst the companies forming the 270 senior-level attendee delegation.

Oando Group, ION, Serinus Energy, the British Arab Commercial Bank (BACB), NRC, Melron Endustri, Veritas Academi, Trans Sahara Group, IESCO, Edgo, IHRDC and Libya Holdings were Official Sponsors of the Forum.

The Libya British Business Council, the Middle East Association, the Italo-Libyan Chamber of Commerce and the international gas association Cedigaz are Official Supporters of the Forum.

More information about the Forum including a photo gallery is available on website www.libyaoilgas.com. Presentations are available for purchase for non-attendees of the forum. For more information please contact Xenia Sapanidi at XeniaS(at)irn-international(dot)com.