Libya’s National Oil Corporation said Tuesday it had agreed to let French oil giant Total buy US outfit Marathon Oil’s 16.33-percent stake in the country’s Waha oil concessions for $650 million (586 million euros). The NOC said in a statement it had approved the deal after consulting the government of national unity in Tripoli. Total would invest the money to develop the concessions, it added. The Waha oil fields currently produce 300,000 barrels a day. The NOC would also receive $150 million to fund social responsibility and durable development programmes near the oil sites, said the statement.
In March 2018, Total announced that it had acquired Marathon Oil Libya for $450 million, which held a 16.33-percent stake in the Waha oil fields. The following month, the NOC said it wanted to re-examine the deal, which
was done before they had received authorisation from the Libyan authorities. The other shareholders in the Waha field are the NOC with 59.18 percent, ConocoPhillips with 16.33 percent and Hess with 8.16 percent. Waha Oil is totally held by NOC. Libya currently produces around 1.2 millions barrels of oil a day, compared to the 1.6 million bpd produced before the fall of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
By AFP
