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From Bulletin 1998, N.2 |
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AGIP is currently the largest foreign oil company operating in Libya. Together with NOC (the Libyan state oil company) it has several fields in production, with the total production from the different onshore and offshore fields amounting to 230,000 bopd. AGIP's equity is about 100,000 bopd. In view of the significant quantities of gas which have been discovered, a project has been set up which involves exporting some of this gas to Italy, with some destined for the domestic market. After a brief spell (1938-1941), cut short by the war, AGIP arrived in Libya in 1959 with the acquisition of concession 82 in the Sahara desert, situated between the Gialo and Giarabub oases, 500 km from the coast. Numerous operating difficulties arose due to the great depth of the reservoir (more than 4000 metres) and to the thick dune-type sand layer, which, apart from creating logistical problems also distorted the seismic results. Better results, including the discovery of numerous reservoirs, were obtained by improving the exploration techniques. In 1966 AGIP acquired the nearby concession 100 in an area abandoned by BP. AGIP took on this explorational challenge by employing a great deal of equipment and by simultaneously using three seismic teams and four drilling systems, the largest ever used outside Italy. In Libya AGIP adopted the most innovative technologies at its disposal, such as multiple seismic coverages in 1963, which were later to become the winning tool in exploration. In those years, Libya was the competitive arena for the world's biggest oil companies. Oil had been discovered in 1958 and in a few years Libya became the site of one of the largest concentrations of oil activity in the world. At its height there were thirty companies, hundreds of contractors, forty or so seismic teams and about eighty drilling rigs operating in the area. Total oil production in Libya at the end of the sixties amounted to more than 3 million bopd. In 1967 AGIP discovered the huge Bu Attifel field in concession 100, a giant which currently produces 140,000 bopd (including condensates). Smaller fields producing some 30,000 bopd were discovered in 1982. In 1974, AGIP acquired an offshore concession off the coast of Tripoli, where two years later it was to discover the Buri oil field, the largest in the Mediterranean. It was put into production in 1988 and currently produces 50,000 bopd. There were many gas fields discovered in this concession. with reserves that are estimated to be 250 billion m3. These reserves, together with those discovered onshore, make up the stock of reserves required for the gas project currently under way, which will allow 7 billion m3 of gas a year to be transported to Italy via a pipeline across the Mediterranean Sea. The rest of the gas is destined for the domestic market. AGIP is the only foreign company currently operating offshore since its arrival in 1974, and uses a large amount of equipment. AGIP actively continues its exploration efforts both onshore and offshore alone and in joint ventures with other companies. It is currently involved in a 50/50 joint venture with Lasmo and a group of South Korean companies which explores in the Fezzan, the southernmost part of Libya. It was here in the Murzuk Basin that the Elephant field was discovered in 1997. Although the extent of the field is still being defined, estimates predict recoverable reserves in the region of 600 million bopd.
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