LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Libya: Oil
built 658 days ago
Overall, Libya would like foreign company help to increase the country's oil production capacity from 1.60 million bbl/d at present to 2 million bbl/d by 2008-2010, and to 3 million bbl/d by 2015. In order to achieve this goal, and ... to upgrade its oil infrastructure in general, Libya is seeking as much as $30 billion in foreign investment over that period. Libya is considered a highly attractive oil province due to its low cost of oil recovery (as low as $1 per barrel at some fields), the high quality of its oil, its proximity to European markets, and its well-developed infrastructure.
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Le Figaro notes that Libya needs an investment of "30 billion dollars in order [to be able] to increase [oil] production to three million barrels a day by 2010." It reports that Libya has begun auctioning off access to its oil fields to foreign, oil-extraction companies, and that a leading Spanish firm has already made inroads in this sector. U.S. companies that want a piece of the action - and that are probably not strangers to a veteran of Big Oil's market romps like Bush - include Marathon Oil Corp. and Amerada Hess Corp. (Reuters)
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Several factors probably contributed to Libya's decision to renounce its nuclear program. First, 30 years of economic sanctions significantly limited oil exports and hurt the Libyan economy. Second, Libya's nuclear program progressed fairly slowly and at a great cost to the country, both economically[58] and politically. Third, the elimination of WMD was a prerequisite to normalizing relations with the West, and ending Libya's pariah status reportedly had become particularly important to Qadhdhafi. Fourth, according to U.S. officials, Libya wanted to avoid the fate of Iraq, which allegedly was invaded to prevent its further development of WMD.[59] Finally, the October 2003 seizure of the ship with centrifuge-related cargo and ensuing investigations may have persuaded Libya to give up its weapons program.[60]
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Under the agreement, the Texan companies as well as the New Yorker company respectively, will return to their former exploration and production interests in the Waha concessions in Libya. ConocoPhillips and Marathon each will hold a 16.33 percent interest; Amerada Hess will hold an 8.16 percent interest; and the Libyan National Oil Corporation will hold the remaining 59.16 percent interest. The concessions currently produce approximately 350,000 barrels of oil per day; encompass nearly 13 million acres located in the Sirte Basin; one of the most prolific oil and gas producing areas of Libya; and contain sizable undeveloped oil and gas resources.
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The June 1967 War between Israel and its Arab neighbors aroused a strong reaction in Libya, particularly in Tripoli and Benghazi, where dock and oil workers as well as students were involved in violent demonstrations. The United States and British embassies and oil company offices were damaged in rioting. Members of the small Jewish community were ... attacked, prompting the emigration of almost all remaining Libyan Jews. The government restored order, but thereafter attempts to modernize the small and ineffective Libyan armed forces and to reform the grossly inefficient Libyan bureaucracy foundered upon conservative opposition to the nature and pace of the proposed reforms.
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[T]hough, "some of the American relatives of those killed in the 1988 Pan Am airliner bombing...voiced outrage and complained they had not been told [about the restoration of ties to Libya] in advance." Susan Cohen lost her daughter in the attack. She said: "It is a dangerous move, and now they have rewarded the terrorists....The only reason they are doing this is oil." Alas, in diplomacy, money talks - but the dead cannot.
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