Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.10 / Trend, A.Taghiyeva /
Libya intends to announce a new tender for the exploration and development of new oil fields, Libyan National Oil Company's website quotes the country's Oil Minister Abdelbari al-Arusi as saying on Monday.
According to al-Arusi, the tender will be held as part of the country's programme on increasing oil production up to 1.72 million barrels per day by the end of March 2013.
Also additional oil wells will be drilled in the existing fields as part of this programme.
Earlier, Libyan National Oil Company said that in September the country's oil production increased by two per cent compared to the previous month amounting to 1.6 million barrels per day.
During the reporting period, natural gas production increased by 0.5 per cent up to 2.3 billion cubic meters per day. In September condensate production was 57,700 barrels per day.
Libya is the eighth largest producer of oil among the 12 states which are members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the third in Africa after Nigeria and Angola. The main importer of Libyan oil is Italy, followed by Germany, France and Spain.
Libya's proven oil reserves amount to 47 billion barrels.
