RusEnergy

MOSCOW, September 5 (RIA Novosti) - Three Russian companies - Gazprom, Lukoil and Novatek - will participate in the fourth round of bidding for the right to operate oil fields in Libya, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said Wednesday. In all, 35 companies have qualified for Bid Round 4, including Ukraine's Naftogaz, as well as Gas de France, ExxonMobil, Wintershall, Statoil, Sonatrach, OMV, Shell, BP, ENI, Chevron, Petronas, ONGC and RWE. The NOC also said it has approved a list of 21 companies that have qualified as "investor," including MOL, Hellinic Petroleum, Oil India, Japan Petroleum, Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui Oil, Korea Gas, Nippon Oil, Centrica, E.On and Fenosa. Libya has the largest proven reserves of low-sulfur oil in Africa and, at 5.1 billion metric tons, the fifth-largest reserves among OPEC countries. Libya's natural gas reserves are estimated at 1.49 trillion cubic meters (the fourth-largest in Africa, after Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt).