Libya touts natural gas potential

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TRIPOLI, Libya, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- The top executive at Libya's state-run energy company touted his country's natural gas potential during a Monday conference in Tripoli.

Nuri Berruien, chairman of the Libyan state-run National Oil Corp., said the country holds 54.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Bloomberg News reports.

The Libyan energy sector is gaining ground this year after being stopped during the civil war in 2011. The NOC this month said it expected to make around $54.9 billion in revenue this year from exports and taxes on energy companies operating in the country.

NOC subsidiary Arabian Gulf Oil Co. announced the discovery of unspecified volumes of oil and natural gas in an onshore basin about 90 miles southwest of Tripoli.

Most of Libya's natural gas is designated for export through the Greenstream pipeline to Italy. Italy received nearly 10 percent of its natural gas from Greenstream before the Libyan war began in February 2011.

The U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration put the natural gas reserve estimate in Libya at 52.8 trillion cubic feet as of January. That represents a 2 trillion cubic feet decline from the previous year's estimates.