LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Libya's National Oil Corp (NOC) isinterested in buying Marathon Oil's stake in one of theNorth African country's most important joint ventures, OilMinister Abdelbari Arusi has said.
U.S. oil firm Marathon is considering the possible sale ofits stake in Libya's Waha Oil Company, which has capacity of350,000 barrels per day and produces Libya's main light sweetcrude grade, sources told Reuters in July.
"Regarding Marathon, yes, we're interested to buy thestake," Arusi said at a conference in London on Wednesday,confirming Marathon was planning to sell its stake.
He said Libya would discuss a potential deal with Marathon,though other firms were also interested.
Industry sources have said a sale would be difficult becausethe project required investment, terms in Libya were tough andpolitical unrest since the 2011 war had brought repeated andprolonged disruptions to production.
A mix of striking workers, militias and political activistshave blocked Libya's oil ports for more than two months,resulting, according to Arusi, in more than $5 billion in lostrevenues for the OPEC members whose budget relies on oil.
In the first quarter, production from Libya accounted forabout 7 percent of Marathon's total output. But Libya has beenstruggling to maintain production levels following the overthrowof dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Hess Corp and ConocoPhillips along with theNOC, are the other two partners in Waha. Asked by Reuters whatit planned to do with its stake, Conoco declined to comment.There was no immediate comment from Marathon or Hess.
The likely departure of Marathon and other foreign investorslike Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell has spurred Libya to revise itstough exploration and production terms.
Arusi said Libya was reviewing terms for existing investorsas well as easing them in the next round of licensing, which heexpected to be announced in the first half of 2014.