U.K. oil giant BP PLC (BP) is expected to start its deep water drilling operations in Libya by October at the latest, Libya's top oil official said Monday.
U.K. oil giant BP PLC (BP) is expected to start its deep water drilling operations
in Libya by October at the latest, Libya's top oil official said Monday.
"They are delaying because of technical problems, they want to be assured
that all the instruments are working well and they don't want a repeat of
Macondo--it may take another two months at most," Shokri Ghanem, Chairman
of Libya's National Oil Corp., or NOC (NOI.YY), told Zawya Dow Jones by
telephone.
BP's plans to drill at least five wells in
Libya
's
Gulf
of
Sirte
, at
depths greater than the Macondo well in the
Gulf of Mexico
, have
some people worried about a similar ecological disaster.
Earlier this month BP told Dow Jones it had pushed back the start date for its
exploration for oil in deep water offshore
Libya
for
an unspecified period of time to ensure all its plans are in order but insisted
the drilling will be safe.
A spokesman for BP Monday said the oil major aims to start drilling in
Libya
during the second half of 2010 but wouldn't give a specific date.
"We are still working through the detailed planning of preparation in
order to drill our first well offshore and we expect to begin drilling in the
second half of this year," said BP spokesman Mark Salt.
BP and the Libyan authorities have said they have the resources to deal with a
medium-sized spill, and if a larger incident did occur BP has a contract with
the world's biggest oil spill response center, based in
Southampton
, in
the
U.K.
,
should they be required.
Libya
is
already a major oil producer, but the bulk of that comes from onshore or
shallow water facilities. It has little experience supervising the risks of
deep water drilling. Despite the looming deadline for drilling to commence,
Libya
is
the only Mediterranean country aside from
Croatia
not
to have a contingency plan in place for handling an oil spill in its waters.
BP shares last traded Monday down 1.4% at 410.6 pence in
London
.
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