Libya has initiated plans to construct a solar plant with the help of French multinational company Total Energies.
Libya’s Minister for Oil and Gas, Mohamed Oun, announced the launch of the Libya Energy and Economy Summit in Tripoli.
“We seek to encourage the investment of oil wealth, its good exploitation and development, and the increase of production capacity to increase production and compensate for lost production due to the natural decline. That will be through development drilling and the increasing of oil production to 2.1 million barrels per day.” He said
The 2021 Summit, endorsed by the Government of National Unity and backed by the National Oil Corporation and Libya’s Ministry of Oil and Gas, is the country’s first international energy event in nearly a decade and seeks to advance foreign capital, technology and expertise in the energy sector as well as discuss energy security issues and a way of solving existing crises and providing solutions to develop the sector.
At the summit, TotalEnergies’ Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne reiterated the company’s desire to encourage the OPEC nation’s reemergence.
The Paris-based firm will put $2 billion into Libya’s Waha oil project, which will boost production by around 100,000 barrels a day, he said. It will also work to raise output at the Mabruk field and help build 500 megawatts of solar power to feed the local grid.
Libya will be a vital source of supply for global petroleum markets over the next decade, Pouyanne said.
Libya contains Africa’s biggest oil reserves but has been mired in fighting for much of the period since 2011 when leader Moammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising. Warring sides struck a truce in mid-2020, leading to more stability and enabling crude output to rise from barely anything to around 1.1 million barrels a day.
The government has said it needs plenty of foreign investment to sustain that level of output, let alone reach its target of between 2 and 2.5 million barrels per day within six years.
According to the Oil and Gas minister, though Lybia has had its challenges, the country is now safe and fertile for foreign investors to come to Lybia for business.
“The state of Libya has become safe, and it has become possible to return the companies that were working in it, especially service companies, whether in the oil sector or the field of infrastructure or various projects. We have noticed since the beginning of the work of the National Unity government that many companies have returned and now, they are constructing electricity stations and constructing roads, especially the Second Ring Road and many other roads throughout the Libyan state.” He said.