This article is an excerpt from the August 2026 Libya Desk Energy Report, part of a monthly series of reports published by Global Insights Group (GIG) covering major updates and developments in Libyaโs oil and gas sector. If you are interested in reading the full report and previous editions, you can contact GIG using the link below to request a free trial.
August delivered Libya's most concrete field-level progress in months, from well restorations to a firm production budget, alongside a formal production-sharing agreement with Chevron and continued courtship from the majors. But the oil sectorโs central tension is unresolved: an NOC leadership pushing to accelerate output and investment against a security and financing environment, most visibly at Zawiya, that risks derailing progress.
A closer look
The positive consequences of the U.S.-mediated Unified Spending Arrangement, signed in April, were felt early this month, when NOC Chairman Masoud Suleiman confirmed that his corporation would receive a 13 billion dinar, roughly $2 billion, operating budget, its first formally approved funding since going without one in 2025.
Suleiman laid out an ambitious set of targets alongside the positive news: restarting wells across several subsidiaries, a North Gallo tender within three months targeting 100,000 bpd, and a national goal of 2 million bpd by 2031.
He told the Financial Times that Libya needs $30 to $40 billion in investment to hit that same goal, citing over 60 undeveloped discovered fields, and signalled the NOC is weighing a return to concession-style agreements requiring more investor-funded upfront development, following July's direct-negotiation deal with Qatar's UCC Holding, a $1 billion, fully investor-financed agreement to more than double output at the Ghadames Basin's North Hamada field to 80,000 bpd.
On the ground, developments broadly supported the NOC's renewal of ambition. Several wells came back online or improved output: Abu Attifel's well A-24 saw production nearly triple after maintenance, Sirte Oil & Gas drilled 17 new wells and restored 44 inactive ones to reach a monthly high of roughly 116,000 bpd, and Sharara oil field hit a peak of 335,000 bpd, with its target now raised to 355,000 bpd by mid-2027.
