AAPG Memoir 74, Chapter 22: Libya, Petroleum Potential of the Underexplored Basin Centers--A Twenty-First-Century Challenge, by D. C. Rusk, Pages 429 - 452
from: AAPG Memoir 74: Petroleum Provinces of the Twenty-first Century, Edited by Marlan W. Downey, Jack C. Threet, and William A. Morgan
Copyright 2001 by The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

Chapter 22
Libya: Petroleum Potential of the Underexplored Basin Centers--A
Twenty-first-century Challenge

Donald C. Rusk
Consultant, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.

ABSTRACT

Recoverable reserves in approximately 320 fields in Libya's Sirt, Ghadamis, Murzuq, and Tripolitania Basins exceed 50 billion barrels of oil and 40 trillion cubic feet of gas. Approximately 80% of these reserves were discovered prior to 1970. Since then, there has been a less active and more conservative exploration effort. Complex, subtle and, in particular, deep plays were rarely pursued during the 1970s and 1980s because of definitive imaging technologies, limited knowledge of the petroleum systems, high costs, and risk adversity.