LIBYA - The Kufrah Basin.

In the remote and unexplored south-east, the Kufrah Basin contains partly marine Palaeozoic strata. Until recently, no firm showed interest in this basin, with NOC saying it would be similar to Murzuk's. In May and June 2003 Repsol/YPF of Spain in partnership with OeMV of Austria, and RWE-Dea of Germany took three blocks in Kurfra. Some firms are considering exploration in Chad, close to Kufra. Kufra's underwater reservoir forms part of the so-called Great Man-made River (GMR).

The Most Attractive E&P Prospect: In a 2001 survey to pinpoint the countries most attractive to oil companies for new E&P ventures outside North America, Libya ranked first among the top ten, followed by Iran, Algeria, Australia, Brazil, the UK, Egypt, Iraq, Angola and Indonesia, in that order. The other most impressive gains in 2001 ranking were made by Mexico, Ecuador and Morocco. The biggest falls were made by Eritrea, Thailand and Myanmar.

Issued in April 2001, the survey was done by Robertson Research International (RRI) of the UK. In a confidential questionnaire, 85 oil companies rated their level of interest in new ventures in 146 countries outside North America. The Middle East was the most popular region, followed by the Far East and Australasia (see background in Vol. 57, Gas Market Trends No. 1). In another survey published in the spring of 2002, RRI again judged Libya to be the top global exploration prospect for private companies.

RRI put Libya's recoverable oil and gas reserves at 40,400m barrels of oil equivalent, discovered in five basins: Sirte (25,000m boe), Cyrenaica (10,000m boe), Pelagian (2,700m boe), Murzuq (1,500m), and Ghadames (1,200m boe). Of these, total gas reserves were estimated at 54 TCF.

RRI estimated the undiscovered oil and gas reserves at 16,500m barrels oe in six basins: Murzuk (10,000m boe), Sirte (2,600m boe), Ghadames (2,100m boe), Pelagian (1,600m boe), Cyrenaica (100m boe) and Kufra (100m boe).