IOCs plot risky Libya return

Despite the continuing threat that the country’s security situation could implode, oil firms are keen to get going again

Italy’s Eni has started gas exploration off Libya’s northeast coast. Meanwhile, TotalEnergies and US independent Conoco­Phillips have enlarged their stakes in Waha Oil—Libya’s largest joint-venture oil company—splitting evenly an 8.16pc stake previously held by exiting US producer Hess. And speculation that Shell could be returning to Libya ratcheted up at the end of November following the leak to the media of an internal briefing document. Shell pulled out of Libya in 2012, but could now revive three promising exploration sites—two in the Sirte basin and a third in the southwest—as well as solar and gas-flaring reduction projects. It is not just large IOCs that are returning. In the country