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Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced the winners of its oil exploration bidding round launched in the first quarter of 2025, awarding five of the 20 blocks offered to a mix of international majors and regional energy companies.
The licensing round - the country’s first since 2007 – covered nine offshore and 11 onshore blocks that had undergone seismic surveys and technical studies, according to NOC’s press statement issued last week.
Formal agreements are expected to be signed in Tripoli before the end of February 2026.
A consortium led by Italy’s Eni (operator with 60 percent stake) with QatarEnergy (40 percent) secured the Offshore License O1, covering approximately 29,000 square kilometres (sq. km.) in the Sirte Basin. The partners will conduct 2D and 3D seismic surveys and drilling over an initial five-year exploration period, Eni said in a press statement
US major Chevron was awarded onshore Contract Area 106 in the Sirte Basin
Nigeria’s Aiteo secured the onshore M1 block in the Murzuq Basin in southwest Libya bordering Niger and Algeria.
A consortium of Spain’s Repsol (operator with 40 percent share), Turkey’s state-owned Türkiye Petrolleri (TPAO) with a 40 percent share and Hungary’s MOL Group (20 percent) won the Offshore License 07, which covers more than 10,300 sq.km in water depths exceeding 1,500m, located approximately 140 km northwest of Benghazi.
A consortium of Repsol (operator with 60 percent) and TPAO (40 percent) was awarded the Onshore License C3, spread over 8,200 sq km, in the Sirte Basin.
A report by Oil Review Middle East last week said the licensing round attracted more than 40 bids, signalling growing international interest in Libya’s largely untapped hydrocarbon potential.
A March 2025 Argus Media report had said the new bid round offers a new Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) model, replacing the Exploration and Production Sharing Agreement (EPSA) contract model of Libya's last licensing round in 2007. The report, citing NOC, said the new PSA could increase contractor internal rate of return (IRR) to 35.8 percent compared with 2.5 percent under existing terms.
Speaking at the opening of the Libya Energy and Economy Summit (LEES) 2026 in Tripoli in January, Libyan prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said oil output reached its highest in 12 years in 2025, climbing to 1.374 million bpd. A related statement by NOC quoted Masoud Suleman as saying that the state-owned company is targeting an initial production increase to 1.6 million bpd, with a subsequent goal of reaching 2 million bpd in the medium term.
During the summit, Libya signed a $20 billion development agreement with France’s TotalEnergies and US-based ConocoPhillips for a period of 25 years. The agreement was signed through Waha Oil Company, affiliated with the NOC, and aims to increase oil production capacity to 850,000 barrels per day, with net revenues to the state exceeding $376 billion, according to a report by Qatar News Agency.
(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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