Vice President of TOTALE&P Eager to Invest Widely in Libya and North Africa
Vienna-Austria:22 August 2012 – In the months leading up to theNorth Africa Oil and Gas Summit 2012, Jean Daniel Blasco, Vice President of TOTALE&P North Africa participated in an interview with The Energy Exchange todiscuss the organization’s opportunities in Libya and North Africa.
Libya has commenced activities on rebuildingits economy at an accelerated rate. The IMF has reported that the Libyaneconomy is expected to surge by nearly 117 per cent in 2012 with oil productionlevels reaching 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) to 1.95 million bpd by 2015.
The offshore Al Jurf field has a capacity of45,000 bpd. Oil production by TOTAL had reached 55,000 bpd in Libya, but haddecreased drastically when the civil war began.
“After the civil war, TOTAL’s main challengewas to support its common operating company with National Oil Company Libya(NOC Libya), Mabruk Oil Operations, to resume production,” said Mr. Blasco.“The two fields Al Jurf (offshore) and Mabruk (onshore) are now back to theirpre-war production level.”
According to Mr. Blasco, the challengesfaced by TOTAL in Libya in addition to supporting development activities ofMabruk Oil Operations, were to re-start its exploration activities.
Libya’s proven oil reserves amount to 47billion barrels and TOTAL is interested in expanding its opportunities in Libya,such as new exploration rounds.
TOTAL is active in exploring potential offshoreresources in Libya and other countries of North Africa.
Mr. Blasco reported: “In Libya, we arealready participating in production from Al Jurf field, located offshoreTripoli. Two exploration wells are planned in 2013 for this area. In Egypt, weare operating the East El Burrulus Block, located deep offshore, where twoexploration wells should be drilled in 2013. We are also interested in therecent exploration round launched by EGAS. In Mauritania, we are operators ofthe Block C9, where we plan to start a 3D seismic campaign by year-end.”
While Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) isincreasingly important in Libya, Mr. Blasco states: “There is a lot to do withImproved Oil Recovery (IOR) activities on existing fields before startingcostly EOR projects.”
The unrest seen in Libya raises security concerns;however TOTAL has managed to work in Tripoli as well as on the fields, bothsafely and efficiently.
Furthermore, TOTAL actively seeks to developlocal content programmes in the region. Mr. Blasco stated that the last developmentproject in Usan, deep offshore in Nigeria, has involved a record 60 per cent oflocal content man-hours.
Mr. Blasco concluded saying: “We have greatambitions for developing our E&P activities in North Africa. For the yearto come, we have two development projects in Algeria, Timimoun and Ahnet, thatwe would like to move forward. We are eager to invest more widely inLibya, to explore and develop new resources. We hope to be successful inEgyptian offshore. In Mauritania, we expect our frontier exploration, both onshoreand offshore to be successful. For the long term, non-conventional hydrocarbonsin mature basins might represent bright perspectives for the oil industry.”
Mr. Blasco is confirmedto participate at the seventh annual North Africa Oil and Gas Summit held from6 – 8 November 2012 in Vienna, Austria. This summit is the only event thatcovers the entire North African region with representation guaranteed at themost senior level from Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Morocco and Mauritania, all of whomare focused on developing their oil and gas industry.
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