Total among companies suspended by Libya over licence expiry

Libya’s Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) has suspended the operations of 40 foreign firms, including French oil company Total, over expired licences.

The GNA’s minister of economy and industry, Ali Issawi, made the decision saying that the companies’ licences had expired, according to a decree that appeared online.

All the suspended companies have been given three months to reapply for their licences.

The security situation in Libya has deteriorated following General Khalifa Haftar’s order last month to his Libyan National Army (LNA) to march on the capital city Tripoli.

In April, GNA directly accused France of supporting Haftar and announced that it was stopping all cooperation with France on bilateral agreements related to security.

Total pumps more than one million barrels of oil per day in Libya with plans to reach 2.1 million barrels by 2023.

The company also has various exploration and production (E&P) operations in Libya. In March 2018, Total strengthened its upstream Libyan operations by purchasing the 16.33% stake of the Waha oil concessions held by US Marathon Oil for $450m in cash.

The acquisition gave Total access to reserves and resources of more than 500 million barrels of oil equivalent, with immediate production of 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) and significant exploration potential in the Sirte Basin.

Total has been operating in Libya since 1954. The group’s production in 2017 was 31,500 boe/d.

The production comes from the offshore Al Jurf field, in which Total has a 37.5% stake, and the El Sharara onshore area (Total, 15% on block ex-NC 115 and 12% on Block ex-NC 186).