Libyan prime minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh
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
Also in this section
8 January 2026
Indonesia and Malaysia are at the dawn of breathtaking digital capabilities. Their energy infrastructure must keep up with their ambitions
8 January 2026
The next five years will be critical for the North Sea, and it will be policy not geology that will decide the basin’s future
8 January 2026
The region’s access to versatile feedstock, combined with policy support, is setting it up to meet growing demand both at home and abroad
7 January 2026
No longer can the energy source be considered a sidekick to oil in the Middle East and neither should it step aside for less convincing alternatives
