TRIPOLI, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced Tuesday the discovery of oil in an exploratory well south of the Western Mountain in the Ghadames Basin, about 450 km southwest of Tripoli.
The NOC said in a post on Facebook that the newly-discovered well has an estimated daily output of about 4,675 barrels of crude oil and 2 million cubic feet of natural gas.
Drilling operations began in late October under the supervision of the Arabian Gulf Oil Company, a subsidiary of the NOC.
The NOC said the project, part of efforts to boost Libya's national oil and gas production, aims to reach a final depth of 11,700 feet. The well is the 10th in a series drilled by the company in the same area since it began exploration there in 1985.
According to Libya's Minister of Oil and Gas Khalifa Abdul Sadek, the country plans to raise its oil production to 1.6 million barrels per day next year, up from the current level of around 1.4 million barrels per day. He noted that Libya's proven oil reserves stand at 48 billion barrels, with oil revenues contributing over 90 percent of the state's income.
The NOC plays a central role in managing Libya's oil wealth and ensuring stable energy supplies. However, years of insecurity and the presence of armed groups controlling oil fields, ports, and other infrastructure have repeatedly disrupted production, posing ongoing challenges to the country's economic recovery.
Since the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been split between two rival governments -- the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and the eastern-based administration appointed by the House of Representatives and headed by Osama Hammad.
