SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (UK): Shell and BP miss out in Libyan oil auction: “British oil and gas companies have been trounced by their US rivals in one of the most important auctions of energy reserves for decades.”: “Both BP and Royal Dutch/Shell had been given the green light to bid in the auction but neither company was among the winners. Shell, which signed a landmark agreement with Libya last March, has a particularly urgent need to boost its oil and gas reserves, after its shock admission last year that it had overbooked its proven reserves by more than 25 per cent.” (ShellNews.net) 30 Jan 05
By Sylvia Pfeifer (Filed: 30/01/2005)
British oil and gas companies have been trounced by their US rivals in one of the most important auctions of energy reserves for decades.
Less than a year after it was welcomed back into the international fold, Libya auctioned off drilling rights to some of the world's largest oil and gas reserves.
The country, the site of Africa's largest oil reserves, wants to attract $30bn (£16bn) of investment to help it double its oil output to 3m barrels a day by the end of this decade.
In a blow to some of Britain's largest oil companies, US oil businesses, led by Occidental Petroleum, won the bulk of the 15 exploration blocks on offer.
Both BP and Royal Dutch/Shell had been given the green light to bid in the auction but neither company was among the winners.
Shell, which signed a landmark agreement with Libya last March, has a particularly urgent need to boost its oil and gas reserves, after its shock admission last year that it had overbooked its proven reserves by more than 25 per cent.
Amerada Hess, which is based in New York, won the first of the 15 exploration blocks, while a partnership of Occidental, Woodside Petroleum and Liwa of the United Arab Emirates won the next four. The only non-US companies to secure licences were from Australia, Brazil, India and Indonesia.
The 15 blocks being offered for exploration – both onshore and offshore – cover a total area of about 127,000 square kilometres, about the size of the US state of Louisiana.
The tender for exploration rights is the first in Libya since 2000. And it was also the first big opportunity for US companies to do business in the country since the trade sanctions were lifted last September after 18 years.