Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has signed production-sharing agreements with several major international energy companies following the country’s first licensing round in nearly two decades, marking a significant turning point in efforts to revive the nation’s oil sector.
NOC Chairman Massoud Suleman announced that the agreements were concluded with Spain’s Repsol and Türkiye’s state-owned Türkiye Petrolleri; Italy’s Eni jointly with QatarEnergy; and a consortium comprising Hungary’s MOL Group alongside Türkiye Petrolleri and Repsol. Suleman said the deals reflected growing investor confidence in Libya’s oil and gas sector and would underpin exploration, development, and production growth across the country.
The signings follow Libya’s 2025 bid round, under which the NOC awarded exploration acreage to foreign companies as the OPEC member works to raise oil production capacity from around 1.4 million barrels per day to a target of two million barrels per day. Exploration blocks were awarded in February 2025 to companies including Chevron, Eni, QatarEnergy, and Repsol — the first such awards since Libya’s last licensing round in 2007 — despite persistent political divisions between rival administrations in the country’s east and west.
The production-sharing agreements formalise the commitments made during the 2025 round and set the stage for renewed exploration activity across Libyan acreage that has long attracted interest but seen limited development in recent years due to the country’s instability.
Source: miningweekly.com