Libya and Indonesia signed a deal for Libya to supply the world’s most populous Muslim nation with crude oil for the next 20 years                      

(8th of February)

Libya and Indonesia signed a deal on Thursday for Libya to supply the world’s most populous Muslim nation with crude oil for the next 20 years, the National Oil Corp said. Under the agreement, Tripoli will supply Jakarta with a minimum of 50,000 barrels per day, a figure rising to 200,000 bpd from 2013. "We want to ensure Libyan oil is exported to the Southeast Asian market," said NOC Chairman Shukri Ghanem, who added that his country also aimed to be involved in constructing a refinery in Indonesia to process Libyan crude

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TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company is undertaking a large multi-client aeromagnetic in Libya

(8th of February)

The Norwegian company TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company is undertaking a large multi-client aeromagnetic study which will provide data for every petroliferous basin in Libya. The study is being jointly acquired with AGESCO and NAGECO, two Libyan companies, under an agreement with the National Oil Corporation of Libya. The program is designed to run in several phases. The first phase will cover all of offshore Libya and several onshore basins, for a total of 250,000 kilometers (15,5432 miles) in a regional grid. TGS will use multiple aircraft simultaneously to speed up data acquisition. The project’s first phase is expected to take around six months, including both acquisition and processing of the data.

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Italy’s Sirti is continuing to consolidate its position on the Libyan market

(7th of February)

Italy’s Sirti is continuing to consolidate its position on the Libyan and Saudi Arabian markets, where it has already been operating with important orders since 2006. The Italian company specialising in plant engineering for telecomm. networks signed yesterday a contract with Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabiŕs biggest crude oil producer, while on February 3 it signed an agreement with Libyan Post Telecomm. & Information Technology Company (LPTIC) in order to implement a digital terrestrial television network in the country, daily Finanza & Mercati announced.

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Plans to pipe gas from Libya to neighbouring Tunisia are in doubt

(7th of February)

Plans to pipe gas from Libya to neighbouring Tunisia are in doubt, as Tripoli is understood to be re-evaluating its ability to enter into a long-term supply agreement, according to sources from both countries. A project to build a 266-kilometre-long gas pipeline between Melitah on Libya’s west coast to Ghabes in southeast Tunisia is understood to have stalled because of questions over the availability of gas in Libya. "They completed a feasibility study, but now they are back to the beginning," says a source close to the project to build a 400MW power plant at Ghannouch in Tunisia

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Libyan Petroleum has bought U.S. Exxon Mobil in Tunisia and Morocco

(6th of February)

Libyan Petroleum has bought U.S. Exxon Mobil in Tunisia and Morocco, Ali Chamekh, chairman of the board of directors of the company announced in a statement to the media. Exxon Mobil owns 20% of the hydrocarbon market in Tunisia and 10% in Morocco. In Tunisia it owns 380 petrol stations and two asphalt producing companies in Tunis and Sfax, an industrial city in the south. Libyan Petroleum is also expected to relaunch the production of engine oil and to build oil warehouses and refilling stations for aircraft and ships.

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Syrian Firm To Build 2,000 Homes in Libya

(5th of February) 

Syrian state-owned General Company for Construction has won a contract in Libya to build 2,000 housing units in the town of Nalut , some 250 km southwest of Libya ’s capital Tripoli , media reported on February 5, 2008.

The houses will have one or two floors. The Syrian contractor will receive 590 Libyan dinar ($487/329 euro) per built-up sq m and the average area of one house will be 195 sq m.

The project will be completed in 38 months from the construction site submission date.

The contract was signed during a ten-day visit of Syrian construction companies delegation, headed by Syria ’s Deputy Minister of Housing and Construction Kheder Mouala, to Libya .

According to Mouala , Syria will have good opportunities to establish itself on the Libyan construction market and will benefit from its large-scale building activities and future projects.

The delegation met with high-ranking officials from the Libyan ministries, locally called general committees, of construction, infrastructure and electricity and water. Several agreements for cooperation are expected to be signed in these fields. Other Syrian state-owned companies will also be invited to bid for tenders for road and bridge construction and water pipelines in Libya , Mouala said.

Libya ratifies gas deal-BP

(4th of February)

Libya has ratified a big natural gas exploration deal it signed with BP Plc last year, a company spokesman said on Monday.The spokesman said the $900 million deal was ratified on Jan 29.Under the bilaterally negotiated accord unveiled on May 29 2007, BP will drill 17 exploration wells across 54,000 square kilometres (13.3 million acres) with an initial exploration budget of $900 million.

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Libya’s New Oil Policy: Pragmatism not Ideology

(2nd of February)

Something quite profound happened in Libya at the end of November 2007, in my opinion, that may have ramifications across the oil producing world. There was a major shift in the rules of the game that govern the relationship between oil-producing and oil-consuming states.

Shukri Ghanem hinted as much when he said to the Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation that ’there are also basic changes in the contracting relations between the companies working in Libya and the producing companies’. Jonathan Stern, of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies said to Reuters, ’Libya wants more share of the rent, and to that extent it reflects the changing balance of power.

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Official Warns of "Many" Expired Products in Supermarkets

(2nd of February)

Speaking at the two-day symposium for Importers of Food and Medicine which took place on 30 January at the Dhat Al-Imad conference hall, Secretary of the GPC for Inspection and People’s Supervision (GPCIPS) Mr. Ibrahim Ali Ibrahim said that there is a large number of complaints from consumers that many imported expired products.

Mr. Ibrahim stressed that importers must abide by the law and take into consideration the protection of the consumer by providing him with safe and healthy products and goods

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RWE Dea Awarded New Concession in Libya

(2nd  of February)

RWE Dea has been awarded concession 58 in the Cyrenaica plateau in the latest licencing round in Libya. The agreement for the new concession was signed at the headquarters of the National Oil Corporation (NOC), in Tripoli on January 23, 2008. Concession 58 is located roughly 240 kilometers east of the city of Benghazi and is subdivided into four partial blocks comprising a total area of 10,289 square kilometers

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The Secret of Tripoli’s Evaporating Petrol - Bad Weather, Sanctions or Just Poor Planning?
 (26th of January)

On the afternoon of Thursday 6th December 2007 my car’s petrol indicator lit up signifying that I was running on empty. Knowing that I was planning to take the family for a Friday trip, I headed off to the nearest petrol station. But it soon became very clear that something very unusual was going on that Thursday, as I was forced from one petrol station to another seeking petrol. At the end I gave up and went home.

Yes, the land of 1.8 million barrels of oil per day and soon to be 3 million barrels of oil per day and member of OPEC…. RAN OUT OF PETROL! OPEC, by the way, stands for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. That is, countries with so much surplus and extra oil production over and above their needs that they belong to an organization that represents the world’s top oil exporters.

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Italy’s Alenia Aeronautica has signed a contract with the Libyan Interiors Ministry, worth about EUR 31 millions, for the supply of one maritime patrol ATR-42MP aircraft

(19th of February)

Italy’s Alenia Aeronautica has signed a contract with the Libyan Interiors Ministry, worth about EUR 31 millions, for the supply of one maritime patrol ATR-42MP aircraft. The contract includes pilots and systems operators training, logistic support and spare parts. The aircraft will be delivered during 2009 and will be used by the Libyan General Security agency for the control of the territorial waters and search & rescue and marine environment safeguard.

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Tripoli to Host Union of Arab Maghreb Trade Fairs

(19th of January)

The directors of trade fairs in the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) member countries, at a meeting in Tripoli decided to establish the AMU countries’ Union of trade fairs whose headquarters will be in Tripoli.

The meeting chose the Secretary of the management committee of the Libyan General Office of Trade Fairs, Jamal Lemouchi, as president while the Union of Maghrebine fairs in Tunisia was appointed vice-president.

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Arab Banking Corporation to acquire 19% stake in Al-Wahda Bank

(17 of January)

Arab Banking Corporation (B.S.C.), a Bahrain-based provider of banking products and services, is planning to acquire Al-Wahda Bank, a Libya-based commercial bank.

The Libyan government is selling a 19% stake in Al- Wahda with an option to increase the stake to 51%. The auction will be completed in February 2008.

Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. of Italy , France-based Societe Generale S.A., Jordan-based Arab Bank, and the Moroccan Attijariwafa Bank are also bidding for Al-Wahda.

N M Rothschild & Sons Limited is acting as advisor to Al-Wahda on this transaction

Intesa Sanpaolo CEO Corrado Passera said the Italian bank is participating in the privatisation of Wahda Bank

(16th of January)

Intesa Sanpaolo CEO Corrado Passera said the Italian bank is participating in the privatisation of Wahda Bank, Libya’s largest bank in terms of number of branches, the Finanza & Mercati daily reported. According to the newspaper, Intesa is close to concluding due diligence on Wahda and has about 6-7 bln eur of free capital.

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CEN-SAD Bank Opens First Branch in Gambia

(12th ofJanuary)

The Gambia’s first ever Investment Bank, BSIC Gambia limited, on Monday, was officially inaugurated at the Gambian capital Banjul.

The Banque Sahelo-Saharienne pour L’invetissement et le Commerce (BSIC) Gambie Limited, otherwise called Sahel-Sahara Bank for Investment and Commerce (BSIC Gambia Limited) represents an important financial institution aimed to generate economic development in Gambia.
The bank whose headquarter is in Tripoli, Libya was established by the CEN-SAD community of a large number of African states.

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GFH’s Strategy: An "Energy City" in Libya

(12th of January)

Gulf Finance House (GFH) is marketing a business idea called "Energy City Libya".
Its chairman Esam Janahi met last week with Secretary of the GPC Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi and discussed with him such strategy. The project is said will be part of an international network of Energy Cities and it will cooperate with them.

Energy City Libya is aiming to become a full service energy business centre catering to the commercial, technical and human resource needs of the oil and gas industry, positioning it as the Energy Hub of region.

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Strabag Gets EUR434M Libyan Infrastructure Renewal Order
 (12th of January)

Austrian construction company Strabag SE said Tuesday it has received a EUR434 million order to modernize the infrastructure in parts of Libya’s capitol Tripoli..

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Libya Awards UAE Firms $2B Contract to Upgrade Refinery
 (12th of January)

Two UAE firms signed Monday a deal worth around $2bn with Libya’s National Oil Corp (NOC) to revamp and upgrade Ras Lanuf oil refinery.
The Star Consortium of TransAsia Gas International and Star Petro Energy signed the 50-50 joint venture agreement with NOC in Tripoli covering a two-stage improvement of the 220,000 bpd Ras Lanuf refinery.

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Work on Kenya-Uganda Oil Pipeline will Begin in May                                

(12th ofJanuary)

Construction work on a Kenya-Uganda oil pipeline will begin in May, as Uganda seeks to end its over-reliance on road and rail for importing fuel products from Kenya, the Ugandan president said late Sunday. According to a statement from the Ugandan state house seen by Dow Jones Newswires, President Yoweri Museveni said the government has awarded the contract for the project to Libya-based Tumoil.

The project will initially involve a 340-kilometer pipeline from Eldoret in western Kenya to Kampala.

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Libya Gives China’s ZTE Tel Deal for WiMAX network
 (12th of January)

China-based telecom equipment manufacturer ZTE has signed a framework agreement with Libya Telecom and Technology to build a large-scale WiMAX 802.16e commercial network in Africa.

The network will cover eight major cities in Libya including its capital, Tripoli. Under the agreement, ZTE will provide IP WiMAX products and services including compact and high-capacity base stations, access gateway, network management system, MPLS and IMS.

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Libya to Host RASCOM Satellite

(12th of January)

Libya is one of four African countries, and the only one from the North of the continent chosen to host the RASCOM-QAF1 nerve and telemetry stations after the 22 December 22, 2007 launch of the first Pan-African Telecommunications satellite (RASCOM-QAF1) at Kourou (French Guiana).

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Colleges for the Colonel.

(11th of  January)

Building Design Partnership has been appointed to design seven universities in Libya . The buildings will be located throughout the country and will serve 28,400 students. The developments will include 14 faculties, 15,000 student residences and 600 staff units. Construction is due to start this year and finish in 2010. Infrastructure engineer is Scott Wilson and fire engineer is Tenos .

French Defence Minister Herve Morin said he hoped France could conclude a sale of the Rafale.

(11th of January)

French Defence Minister Herve Morin said Thursday that he hoped France could conclude a controversial sale of the Rafale, high-tech fighter to Libya within six months, or before the summer. The sale of around 14 Rafale jet fighters, the most technologically advanced to come out of the French production line, created ripples here during last months visit by Libyan leader Mu’ammer al-Qadhafi. The sale, which is not firm yet, was part of a "memorandum of cooperation" in the defence sector that French sources said could lead to 4.5 billion Euros in contracts with Libya.

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