By Tansa Musa
YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Libya could agree a renegotiated oil contract with Spain's Repsol by next week in a drive to gain a greater share of the profits from operations with foreign partners, an official said on Thursday.
Seddiqui N. Ismail, Libya's representative to the African Petroleum Producers Association (APPA), said the north African state was on track to reach a target of 2 million barrels a day by 2010 to meet rising demand from emerging markets such as India and China.
Libya currently produces around 1.7 million barrels a day, up from 1.35 million barrels a year ago, Ismail said.
Libya has been toughening terms for foreign oil partners for the past several months in a campaign seen by analysts as a pragmatic move to protect its interests at a time of high prices rather than to minimise outside involvement in the sector.
Many of Libya's existing production sharing agreements with Repsol and other multinationals date back more than two decades to the era of the "Seven Sisters", when crude prices were lower and oil majors dominated world production.
"Now these agreements are about to expire at a time when the international oil market situation has shifted, demand keeps on growing and the prices are rising, we want to have the larger share of the cake," Ismail, who is an adviser to Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC), told Reuters in an interview.
"If the former contract was 50-50, now we are talking of 72 for Libya and 28 for the companies," he said on the sidelines of an APPA meeting in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde.
Repsol YPF is a major player in Libya's oil sector, producing some 210,000 barrels a day. Only the NOC operates more oilfields in the country.
"Negotiations are still on with Repsol YPF and others. We are still to formalise new agreements: I can't say exactly when we'll be through, but it could be next week."
APPA
Created in Nigeria in 1987, APPA comprises 14 members: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Libya, Nigeria and South Africa.
Together they produce 9.9 million barrels of oil per day and 190 billion cubic metres of gas per day, representing 12 percent of the world's oil production and 6.4 percent of its natural gas supply.
Ismail urged other African countries to emulate Libya's example.
"The producer countries have to have the larger share in oil deals. Now the international oil market is in their hands ... 20-25 years ago the ball was in the court of the big buyers. Now it is in the court of producers and we have to play it well."
Following the lifting of the embargo on trade with the West a few years ago, Libya was benefitting from the introduction of new technologies and its technicians were learning from Western experts.
"We've had to invest more money to up our production to reach out to emerging markets in India, China and Malaysia," said Ismail. "This year our production is 1.6-1.7 million and by 2010, I'm sure we can reach 2 million barrels per day."
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ )
