Libya’s National Oil Company Reports Three New Oil And Gas Discoveries

Libya’s National Oil Corporation has announced a trio of new hydrocarbon discoveries with Eni, Repsol, and Sonatrach, in a sign that exploration activity is gaining traction again across some of the country’s most important producing regions.

The highest-profile result came offshore western Libya, where NOC and Eni North Africa drilled the J1-4/16 exploration well in Block D and confirmed a new gas discovery around 95 kilometers from shore.

The well reached a total depth of 10,458 feet, with tests on the Metlawi reservoir delivering 14 million cubic feet per day in one test and 24 MMcf/d in a second test under a wider choke.

The discovery also marks the completion of the ninth and final contractual exploration obligation under Contract 4/16, originally signed in June 2008.

Onshore, NOC and Repsol Libya Branch reported a new oil discovery in Contract Area 131/130 in the Murzuq Basin, around 800 kilometers south of Tripoli.

The J1-4/130 exploratory well was drilled to 4,325 feet and is producing an average of 763 barrels per day from the Mummiyat Formation.

The well is the fifth completed under the eight-well commitment set out in the partners’ 2008 Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement.

A third announcement came from the Ghadames Basin, where NOC and Sonatrach’s Libyan unit SIPEX disclosed a combined oil and gas discovery near the Wafa field.

The A1-69/02 exploration well, drilled to 8,440 feet, is flowing 13 million cubic feet of gas per day alongside 327 barrels per day of condensate from the Awynat Wanin and Awyn Kaza formations. That well is the sixth drilled out of eight planned under the EPSA signed in May 2008.

The immediate takeaway is that Libya is seeing exploration wins across multiple basins and operators, with both greenfield potential and follow-up drilling still delivering commercial volumes.

Offshore gas is particularly significant because Libya is looking to strengthen supply to its domestic market while maintaining its position as a Mediterranean energy supplier.

New gas volumes also fit a broader regional trend in North Africa, where producers are prioritizing faster-cycle gas developments amid persistent demand from Europe and tighter regional energy balances.

The Murzuq and Ghadames finds matter for a different reason. They reinforce the continued prospectivity of Libya’s established onshore basins, where even relatively modest wells can support near-term production growth if infrastructure and security conditions allow.

The Sonatrach discovery’s proximity to Wafa could prove especially relevant if existing regional infrastructure offers a path to commercialization.

Together, the three announcements suggest that long-dormant contractual acreage awarded in the late 2000s is still yielding results, even after years of political fragmentation and stop-start investment. For Libya, that is an encouraging signal as it tries to attract more upstream capital and arrest output volatility.