A spokesman for oil giant BP said the company expects to start deep-sea drilling work off the coast of Libya next year, as it resumes a $2 billion exploration program halted by the overthrow of the Ghadhafi last year.
According to the report from Dow Jones, the company, which lifted a freeze on activities in the country in May, will soon begin the preliminary work needed before it can start drilling exploration wells; drilling itself will likely start before the end of 2013.
BP is currently deciding on contractors to do underwater geological surveying.
As part of a deal agreed in 2007, BP will explore the frontier Sirt basin, and it has already acquired 31,000 square kilometers of three-dimensional seismic data both offshore and onshore, where it holds acreage positions in the Ghadames basin in Libya's western desert.
(Source: Dow Jones)
