The Elephant field
(also known as the El Feel) is an oil field
located in onshore in Libya
's Murzuq Basin.
In October 1997, an international consortium led by British
, along with Eni
(33%) and a group of five South Korean
companies, announced that it had discovered large recoverable crude reserves (around 700 million barrels) at the NC-174 Block, which is located in the southwestern Libyan desert
about 465 miles (800 km) south of Tripoli, Libya
. Other participants in the block included Agip Nord Africa B.V. and a consortium of Korean companies, which included the Daesung Group, Daewoo
International Corp., Hyundai Corporation
, Korea Petroleum Development Corp., and the Majuko
LASMO had entered Libya in 1990 with the Korean consortium named PEDCO and caried out the initial exploration programme of geological fieldwork, 2500km of seismic acquisition and the drilling of four wildcat wells that led to two oil discoveries in 1993-94. This initial success ensured the viability of further exploration in the area and therefore the pursuit of the Elephant Prospect. The LASMO-PEDCO exploration team had identified the Elephant feature on its extensive seismic database and negotiated with the Libyan NOC to extend the concession area to include the entire prospect. LASMO was subsequently purchased by ENI.
LASMO estimated that production from the field would cost around $1 per barrel. Development costs were estimated to be $500 million.Bids in on......