Libya Wants U.S. Firms to Bid for Oil [View All]

[Robb]

...Nobody saw this coming, I'll bet. ;)

Libya Wants U.S. Firms to Bid for Oil

ALGIERS, Algeria -- Libyan oil officials want U.S. companies to bid in the North African country's first-ever competitive auction of energy contracts, raising the stakes for the United States as the Bush administration considers whether to end economic sanctions against Libya.

Libya's state-run National Oil Co. plans this summer to offer foreign firms the right to bid on five newly designated areas for exploration. Although a U.S. economic embargo still bars Americans from investing in Libya, the Libyan company's planning director, Tarek Hassan-Beck, said the two countries have resolved most of their remaining differences and could re-establish normal diplomatic relations within weeks.

"I think it's just a matter of paperwork," he said in an interview in Algiers, Algeria.

U.S. President George W. Bush has welcomed Libya's renunciation of terrorism and promise to dismantle programs to develop weapons of mass destruction, though Washington has yet to announce plans to restore diplomatic ties or lift the embargo it imposed on Libya in 1986.

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