Libya: NOC Announces New Onshore Oil Discovery In Ghadames Basin

Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOCO), has made a new oil discovery in the Ghadames Basin in northwestern Libya, near the Libyan-Algerian border.

A statement by the company, carried by Reuters, noted that the discovery was made in well H1-NC4, with daily production estimated at about 4,675 barrels of crude oil and approximately 2 million cubic feet of gas.

Last week, the Libyan state oil company also announced a new oil discovery by the Libyan subsidiary of Austrian energy firm OMV in Block 106/4 in the Sirte Basin, one of the world’s top petroleum provinces in terms of estimated reserves.

Production tests showed that the exploration well is producing more than 4,200 barrels of oil per day, with gas production expected to exceed 2.6 million cubic feet daily, the NOC said.

The well marks the first discovery for OMV in Block 106/4, under the Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement (EPSA) signed in 2008 between the NOC, as the owner, and OMV, as the operator.

OMV returned to Libya at the end of 2024 after more than a decade. Foreign oil and gas companies suspended operations in late 2011 following the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi and the subsequent civil war.

Security conditions in Libya have improved in recent months, allowing foreign majors to resume exploration activities in one of Africa’s top oil-producing nations.

Algerian state energy firm Sonatrach resumed oil and gas exploration drilling in Libya’s Ghadames Basin in mid-October.

Italy’s energy giant Eni also restarted exploration activities in the offshore area northwest of Libya after a hiatus of more than five years, the NOC said in early October.

In July, the NOC signed agreements with supermajors BP and Shell to explore and assess the oil and gas potential of several fields across the country, marking another step in Big Oil’s return to Libya.