Libya's NOC, Italy's Eni resume oil exploration off Libyan coast after 5-year hiatus

TRIPOLI -- Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced Sunday the resumption of oil exploration in several offshore areas that had been inactive for more than five years, in cooperation with the Italian company Eni.

The NOC said in a statement that the move follows the completion of technical and environmental assessments, noting that the work will cover offshore areas in northwestern Libya, where survey operations had been halted due to security concerns and instability.

The statement added that technical teams from Eni had already begun conducting seismic surveys and geological studies in preparation for drilling new exploratory wells, confirming that this step is part of the corporation's strategic plan to increase production capacity and optimize the utilization of hydrocarbon resources.

Eni is one of the largest investors in Libya's oil and gas sector and jointly manages several projects with the NOC, most notably the Bahr Essalam natural gas project, one of the largest offshore fields in North Africa.

Despite ongoing political unrest since the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi's regime, the oil sector remains the backbone of Libya's economy and its main source of national incom