Petroleum Geology of Libya / Нефтяная геология Ливии

Libya has the largest petroleum reserves of any country in Africa and since production began in 1961 over 20 bilhon barrels of oil have been produced. It has been calculated that Libya will reach the mid-point of reserves depletion in 2001 and this provides a timely point at which to review the state of petroleum exploration in Libya. It is perhaps surprising that no comprehensive account of the petroleum geology of Libya has yet been pubUshed. This is partly attributable to the fact that it is only within recent years that oil companies have released the information necessary to compile a book of this kind, and partly because of the onerous task of collecting the data. On average around fifty articles are pubhshed each year on the petroleum geology of Libya. A recent bibhographic search revealed over 5000 pubhcations dealing directly or indirectly with Libyan geology, and a large proportion of these pubhcations relate to hydrocarbons. <...>