The CEO of Tatneft Nail Maganov has stated in a public briefing that
it is planning to resume oil production in Libya, as soon as possible.
In March, Tatneft announced its plans to shut down energy projects Libya due to political tensions and violence in the country. Maganov said then the company intended to complete work it had been forced to cease after a revolution swept across the country.
“Our specialists are already working there,” Maganov added.
The chairman of the board of Tatneft and president of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, expected that the total production from the projects in Libya and Syria would reach 50 million tons.
These are preliminary estimates that will be updated as exploration commences. Tatneft worked in Libya under the concessionary agreement from 2005 right until 2014, when hostilities erupted in the country.
Maganov told journalists during the Russian Energy Week forum 2019 that his company was seeking for new blocks in Libya.
The contracts between the two sides include four exploration and production sharing agreements in Ghadames and northwestern Libya off its borders with Tunisia and Algeria.
In January 2020, the company’s senior geologist and deputy chief, Rais Khisamov said Tatneft had employed local companies to carry out research work as none of its specialists had been present in Libya. After a truce was negotiated in the country, the Tripoli authorities expressed optimism for the return of Russian businesses to Libya – notably Gazprom, Rosneft, and Tatneft.
In May, Gazprom EP International resumed crude oil production in Libya under its joint venture agreement with Germany’s Wintershall Dea. Gazprom has been on the Libyan territory since 1966.
In February 2021, Libya’s Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeq said Russia and Libya could renew by the end of this year an intergovernmental agreement on trade, economic, and financial cooperation amounting to $18 billion. The two countries had concluded the deals in 2008 under late Muammar Gaddafi.
Libya’s deputy prime minister estimated the remaining business projects at some $4 billion. The Tripoli-based government would like to achieve this by renewing economic ties with Russia.
