Total, Repsol, OMV and Saga have made a new oil discovery in Libya's Block NC 186. Well I-1, drilled in the Murzuq Basin 800 kilometers south of Tripoli, reached a total depth of 1,700 meters and found a significant oil column in the Mamuniyat sandstone formation.
During production testing, the well flowed at a rate up to 2,060 barrels per day of 40 degree API oil. It is the fifth discovery made in this block.
Two of the four discoveries in NC 186 have come on stream over the last two years with a combined production of 45,000 barrels of oil per day. The field development plan for the third discovery has been submitted to the Libyan National Oil Company for approval, while the field development plan for the latest discovery is currently under preparation.
Crude oil production in the Murzuq Basin started at the end of 1996 from the adjacent El Sharara fields in block NC 115 which produce around 200,000 barrels per day of sweet light oil.