BP denies move to cancel Libya drilling

UPSTREAM [28/01/13]

By Bill Lehane, News Wires

Not off the map: BP says it has not cancelled onshore Libya plans

BP (SOURCE: upstreamonline.com)

British oil major BP has denied making any plans to cancel exploration drilling onshore Libya slated for the second half of the year because of the In Amenas tragedy. 

A spokesman for the explorer confirmed to Upstream that BP has been reviewing security across the Middle East and north Africa region for the past week in the wake of the deadly hostage crisis.

“We’re reviewing security across the region and any impact that has on our drilling plans,” the spokesman said.

However, he denied any move had been made to scrub the onshore drilling programme at the Ghadames block - near the borders with Tunisia and Algeria - in the second half of 2013, as reports by Dow Jones Newswires earlier suggested.

“No decisions have been taken, and no people have been taken out of Libya,” the spokesman confirmed to Upstream.

BP’s expatriate workers in Libya are all based in the capital Tripoli, with no staff in the city of Benghazi where a number of countries including the UK advised their citizens to leave last week because of a security alert.

The British supermajor’s Libyan operations were placed under force majeure in February 2011 amid the country’s uprising against the former Gaddafi regime, a restriction later lifted in May 2012.

As well as onshore activities, a high-impact deep-water offshore exploration programme is also planned by BP in Libya, although it is not due to start before the end of 2013.