OIL SEARCH IN LIBYA

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28658, 7 August 1958, Page 18

OIL SEARCH IN LIBYA

“Area Of Major Interest”

<Speciai Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 6. The oil discoveries in the Sahara have put Libya squarely on the oil man’s map as an area of major interest, and in the present financial year 11 companies—eight American, one British, one Dutch-British, and one French—are budgeted to spend almost £2O million on prospecting operations in what they regard as the more promising sectors of some 600.000 square miles of desert, says a special correspondent of “The Times.” Of 16 wells drilled in the last two years the only productive one was in West Fezzan, and it is not commercially exploitable alone.

Oil companies, however, acutely aware of the importance of a major strike well west of Suez, are increasing the tempo of their activities. Seven rigs are now in Libya and more are on the w*ay. There are 25 surface geological parties, 18 gravity and 15 seismic crews.

Other companies, including German and Japanese concerns, are anxious to get in even although only concessions farther to the south are available to latecomers. All the oil companies operating in areas near the coast which were the scene of the heaviest fighting during the war have their own crews for mine-clearing, an operation which represents about half the total cost of field expenditure on prospecting. It is estimated about 4 million mines are still lying in known minefields, plus perhaps a million more, the precise location of which is unknown.