Libya starts offshore oil search

Libya is beginning the process of opening up its offshore oil reserves to foreign firms by trying to map out the extent of what it has to offer.

The country became a target for oil majors late last year when it agreed to abandon programmes for developing weapons of mass destruction.

The decision triggered an easing of sanctions, allowing Anglo-Dutch major Shell to sign a gas deal.

Now Libya is hiring a French firm to see how much oil it has in its waters.

The company, Compagnie Generale de Geophysique (CGG), has been contracted to start seismic surveys by June this year.

CGG says that little work has been done to map the area in the past 20 years and says the first phase of its exploration will take at least a year as a result.

The client for the work is Libya's National Oil Company.

Several Western companies aside from Shell, notably Italy's Eni, already have deals of one kind or another with Libya.

But more are likely to follow, since the country's reserves so far tend to be both plentiful and relatively cheap to extract.