Libya needs $3-4 billion to boost oil production, bidding round expected soon: oil minister

Libya needs between $3 billion and $4 billion to reach an oil production rate of 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), the acting oil and gas minister, Khalifa Abdulsadek, told Reuters on Saturday, adding that a new license bidding round is expected to be approved by the cabinet before the end of January.

Abdulsadek said the Libyan economy heavily relies on oil, accounting for more than 95% of its economic output.

"There is momentum in reconstruction and this can only be achieved by increasing the production," Abdulsadek said.

Abdulsadek said the goal is not just to reach 1.6 million bpd but to further increase it to 2 million bpd.

According to National Oil Corporation (NOC), the national oil output reached 1,413,372 bpd on Friday.

The OPEC-member country was producing 1.6 million bpd before the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Abdulsadek said, on the sidelines of the Libya Energy and Economy Summit held in Tripoli, the bidding round would include three basins and from 15 to 21 blocks.

"The bidding will be in all the sedimentary basins in Libya, Sirte Basin, Murzuq Basin, Ghadames Basin. Marine areas, pretty much everywhere," Abdulsadek said.

Libya's last bidding round for oil and gas exploration concessions was declared 17 years ago, NOC's former chief Farhat Bengdara said in December. Bengdara added that 70% of Libya's total land area and over 65% of its territorial waters have yet to be explored. Bengdara resigned on Thursday and he was replaced by NOC Board of Directors member Masoud Sulaiman.

Abdulsadek explained that the date to announce the licensing of the bid round would be declared after the approval by the government of national unity meeting "as both the oil ministry and NOC have finished their work."

He said that the government would work with its partners to provide the $3-4 billion as "not just to increase the production but to preserve the current production rates."

The bidding round has strategic importance, the minister said, adding that "whenever there is production, there is a loss and this loss must be compensated for by exploration.