Libya: NOC awards six blocksto Woodside venture

NATIONAL OIL Corporation (NOC) has signed an exploration and production-sharing agreement with a consortium of Australia's Woodside Energy, Spain's Repsol YPF and Greece's Hellenic Petroleum. The deal gives Libya's upstream licensing system, which has been criticised for being horrendously slow in the past, continued momentum. In June, a venture comprising Repsol YPF (60%) and OMV (40%) signed a contract with NOC for the exploration of six blocks, comprising so-called package one. In the same month, Germany's RWE-DEA signed an exploration and production deal for six blocks, a project it will undertake jointly with NOC. An acceleration in upstream activity, made possible by the lifting of san