Libya: so near and yet so far

LITTLE OF Libya has been explored using modern techniques and only about a quarter of the land is covered by oil licences - effects of political isolation and tough fiscal terms - making exploration prospects excellent. The tendency is for discoveries to be large with good production characteristics more juicy bait for oil companies. But the practical realities of investing in Libya remain formidably tricky. As the Libya section of this survey shows, some European oil firms, notably Repsol YPF, are making inroads into the country's alluring upstream sector. But progress in the authorities' attempts to increase oil output capacity from 1.5m barrels a day (b/d) to 2m b/d over five years is slo