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AAPG Bulletin

Abstract


Volume: 50 (1966)

Issue: 3. (March)

First Page: 635

Last Page: 635

Title: History of Oil Development in Libya: ABSTRACT

Author(s): J. P. Smith, W. V. Naylor, Jr.

Article Type: Meeting abstract

Abstract:

Concessions were first granted in Libya during late 1955. At that time 14 companies obtained concessions totaling 130 million acres. By November 19, 1959, concession areas had increased to 265 million acres, but they decreased to 174 million acres by September 1, 1965. On July 29, 1965, 98 individual blocks totaling 147,589,617 acres were made available for bidding. As of September 1, 1965, no additional acreage had been granted.

Exploration activity has been concentrated in two basins. Of primary interest is the Sirte basin in east-central Libya.

Since drilling activities commenced in 1956, 1,572 wells have been completed in Libya, of which 44 per cent were wildcats. In the Sirte basin 12 per cent of the wildcat wells have been successful, and in the Ghadames basin of western Libya 18 per cent have been successful. No oil has been found in the Murzuck or Cufra basins.

More than 11 million feet of hole has been drilled, 4.84 million feet of which has been wildcat drilling. Eighty-five oil fields, 59 in the Sirte basin and 26 in the Ghadames basin, have been discovered by means of wildcat drilling. It is estimated that more than 9 billion barrels of oil in place have been found. Individual pool reserves range from a few thousand barrels to more than one billion barrels of recoverable oil. The largest reserves are in Eocene and Cretaceous rocks of the Sirte basin.

At the end of 1961, one company was producing at the rate of 40 thousand barrels per day. Today five companies are producing more than 1.25 million barrels per day.

Industry has spent over 1.3 billion dollars in the search for oil, increasing from 33 million dollars in 1957 to more than 270 million dollars in 1964.

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Copyright 1997 American Association of Petroleum Geologists