Libya oil chief targets refinery project JVs

LONDON (Reuters) - Libya is hoping to reach agreement with foreign oil companies in the next few months on new joint venture refinery and petrochemical projects in the OPEC country, Libya's top oil official said on Tuesday.

The U.S. last week removed Libya from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, giving the oil producer greater access to the equipment and capital it needs to enhance both upstream and downstream capacity.

"The main principles are there (in the talks)," Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil company told the Reuters Global Energy Summit by telephone link.

"We're almost in the final stages of negotiations on some of these projects," Ghanem said. "We're hopeful that in the next two, three or four months we will make big progress."

Ghanem acknowledged that both Libya's 220,000-barrels-per-day Ras Lanuf and its 120,000-bpd Zawia refineries "need to be improved and gradually revamped."

"It will be for our benefit to joint venture with foreign companies rather than doing it by ourselves as those companies bring technology, expertise and better management," Ghanem said.

"There is a lot of interest from companies in the U.S., India, Japan and Europe who want to participate in these refineries; I hope very soon we'll reach agreement with one of these companies to revamp our oil refineries and also our petrochemicals and fertilizer plants."

Ghanem did not specify the potential projects, but said some foreign companies wanted to build new refineries, while others wished to form joint ventures with existing Libyan plants and to participate in upgrading projects.