Tripoli: Libya's oil industry will need at
least $25 billion (Dh91.8 billion) in investment to increase its oil
production to two million barrels a day, said the chairman of
drilling-rig operator Challenger Ltd.
"Fields need to be developed, others redeveloped," Hassan Tatanaki
said in a telephone interview on Friday. "The Libyan oil industry needs a
lot of revamping. We have to reinvest to be able to get the proper cost
effective amount into the industry in terms of the country's production
level."
The armed conflict in Libya, holder of Africa's largest proven
reserves, has reduced the nation's output to 100,000 barrels a day in
July from the 1.6 million barrels pumped before the uprising started in
February. A full recovery of production may take as long as three years,
according to analysts' estimates.
Tatanaki, 53, said he intends to play a role in rebuilding Libya's
oil industry, of which Challenger's 35 rigs across the country "are the
core".
His Libya Al Hurra charity, set up shortly after the unrest began,
has been providing humanitarian aid and relief to refugees and those
displaced by the conflict in Libya operating out of Egypt, Tunisia,
Libya and the US.
"We're not just concentrating on just medical and food supplies,"
Tatanaki said. "We also want to play a part in other ways so that in the
next year or so we have a proper constitution, transparency that helps
create a democracy."
Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi continued to battle revolutionaries
in the Libyan capital Tripoli, as the opposition National Transitional
Council said the North African nation's humanitarian aid needs are
"urgent".
Rebel leaders worked to retrieve assets frozen by the United Nations
and individual countries in an effort to obtain funding for food, and
humanitarian and medical needs, transitional council Chairman Mustafa
Abdul Jalil said at a press conference in Benghazi on Friday.
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