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Libya, holder of Africa's largest oil reserves, has the potential to become a primary development site for ChevronTexaco as the African nation rebuilds its energy industry from years of sanctions, a company official said Tuesday.
"We think Libya has the potential to be a focus country," similar to those that receive about $5 billion of investment, James Lejeune, vice president of business development of ChevronTexaco, said in an interview during a conference in Tripoli.
Oil and gas finds would need to be significant. "We are not talking about hundreds of millions of barrels; we are talking about billions of barrels per business unit," he said.
Libya, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, wants to attract $30 billion to its oil industry to almost double its oil production capacity before the end of the decade. California-based ChevronTexaco, the second-largest U.S. oil company, is one of 62 companies that qualified to bid in Libya's first oil and gas exploration tender since the lifting of the U.S. sanctions in September.
American oil companies left Libya in 1986, following U.S. accusations that the nation was involved in international terrorism. European companies have been doing most of the exploration since, attracted by a proximity to European natural gas markets. Libyan officials say the country may contain more than 100 billion barrels if it is fully explored, compared with 36 billion barrels of proven reserves in 2003.
On Tuesday, light, sweet crude for January delivery fell $1.52 to $41.46 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement price in more than four months. Heating oil futures fell nearly 2.61 cents to $1.2236 per gallon and natural gas settled 30.2 cents lower at $6.621 per thousand cubic feet.
In London, the January contract for Brent crude was down $1.38 to $38.27.
Dow Jones News Service contributed to this report.
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