Taiwan seeks international partner to drill for oil in Libya

May 21, 2006, 14:05 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan's state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) is seeking an international partner to drill for oil in Libya, the Central News Agency (CNA) said on Sunday.

CPC has been mulling driling for oil in Libya for a long time, but had not done so due to restrictions caused by the UN sanctions against Libya, CNA quoted an unnamed CPC official as saying.

Now that international embargos have been lifted and Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian visited Libya on May 10, conditions are ripe for CPC to explore for oil in Libya, the report said.

'To buy oil from Libya is expensive because transport cost is high, but we are interested in finding an international partner to jointly drill for oil in Libya, and we are still looking for the right oil field,' the official said.

CPC needs an international partner to jointly drill for oil in Libya because CPC's 2006 budget for oil exploration is only 100 million US dollars.

Taiwan does not have diplomatic ties with Libya but the two countries have agreed to establish unofficial ties, including opening representative offices and launching cooperation in trade, science, technology, fishery and tourism.

President Chen made a surprise visit to Libya on May 10 on his way home from visiting Latin America and met with with Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi. China protested Libya's receiving Chen, but Gaddafi said that if China could do business with Taiwan, then Libya could.

Taiwan imports 97 per cent of the oil it needs, and has been actively seeking to drill for oil in Asia, Africa, North America and Latin America to secure its source of oil supply.