H.E. Shokri Ghanem, the Chairman of the National Oil Company of Libya, highlights in this special article for the Newsletter the potential of Libyan gas exports in the context of regional energy security along side Libya’s increasing importance as exporter of oil to global markets. His perspectives have special relevance for the opening plenary session of the forthcoming 8th Offshore Mediterranean Conference organized jointly by the OMC and IEF Secretariat on the “Mediterranean Dimension of Global Energy Security” in Ravenna, Italy on 28 March 2007. Dr. Ghanem will share his perspectives as a speaker at the session, which will be inaugurated by H.E. Pierluigi Bersani, Minister of Economic Development of Italy.
Prior to assuming his present position last year, a position with functions corresponding to those of Ministers of other countries, Dr. Ghanem served for three years as Secretary (Prime Minister) of the General People’s Committee of Libya after serving as Secretary (Minister) of the General People’s Committee from 2001-3. Following a distinguished academic career, he was Director of OPEC’s Research Division from 1999-2003, the last two years also in charge of OPEC’s Secretariat. Dr. Ghannem was selected “Petroleum Executive of the Year for 2006” by the Energy Intelligence Group.
It gives me great pleasure to contribute to this edition of the International Energy Forum Secretariat Newsletter which will be published in time for presentation at the 8th Offshore Mediterranean Conference to be held in Ravenna in March 2007. I must also say that I was extremely delighted to participate in the 10th International Energy Forum Ministerial and the 2nd International Business Forum, which were held in Doha in April 2006. I certainly found the discussions with the Energy Ministers quite stimulating and definitely share their view that the International Energy Forum can play a pivoting role in bridging the gap between energy consuming and producing countries through deeper dialogue that activates cooperation and inhibits confrontation. I would also like to take this opportunity to stress the importance of enhancing the energy dialogue between the various energy players at all levels. Only through such a process can successful and lasting relations be achieved and global energy security addressed. As a case in point, the Libyan-Italian dialogue and cooperation experience, which has resulted in bringing the vast Libyan gas resources to the European market through what became known as the Western Libya Gas Project (WLGP), is worthy of special mention. This project, which was launched in 1999 and completed on schedule in 2004, and which involved the development of two large Libyan fields: the onshore Al-Wafa and the offshore Bahr Essalam fields, and the construction of the longest sub-sea pipeline in the Mediterranean (The Green Stream Pipeline) which currently supplies Europe with 8 BCM of gas per year, could not have been possible without the outstanding cooperation between NOC-Libya and ENI-Italy. Undoubtedly, the project has contributed both to the growth of Libyan economy and to the diversification of Europe’s energy supplies.
Important Supplier
With the inauguration of the WLGP and the stepping up of exploration programs for both oil and gas, I believe that Libya, in addition to being a major supplier of oil, will become an important supplier of gas to Europe during the coming decades. Of course, Libya’s role as a major oil producer will continue as well in view of the substantial proven oil reserves amounting to 39 billion barrels and the fact that there is great potential of discovering more oil since only 25% of the country is actually explored and even this area is not yet fully developed. Our policy aimed at opening more areas for exploration and attracting foreign investment through a highly competitive and a transparent process will see to it that, by 2015, Libya’s oil production will once again reach 3 million bpd. However, Libya’s potential of becoming an important gas producing country as well is just as great. To put this in perspective, with proved gas reserves of around 47 TCF, Libya is no stranger to the international gas market since it became in 1970 the second country in the world (after Algeria) to export LNG to Italy and Spain. Furthermore, with about 50% of these reserves being undeveloped, and the high possibility that the country’s proved and probable gas reserves could be as high as 100 TCF, exports to Europe of pipeline gas and even LNG will ultimately increase in the years to come. More specifically, plans are already underway for doubling the capacity of the gas pipeline to Italy, revamping and expanding the capacity of the existing LNG plant, and even the possible construction of a new LNG plant. Certainly, the remarkable success of the previous three open bid rounds conducted during 2005 and 2006 stands as a testimony of Libya’s great potential as an oil and gas producing country, and gas would definitely be the focus of the next exploration round to be launched in the first quarter of this year. Keeping all this in mind, I believe that Libya will play in the coming decades a major role in enhancing and broadening the Mediterranean dimension of global energy security.