Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has announced the discovery of six new oil wells in 2025, with recoverable oil reserves estimated at 168.1 million barrels and gas reserves of 52.019 billion cubic feet.
A table of the discoveries, published by the NOC on its Facebook page, showed that half of the wells have successfully passed testing, while one remains under testing and two are suspended. The Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOCO) discovered three of the wells, while the remaining wells were identified by Sirte Oil and Gas Production and Manufacturing Company, Algeria’s Sonatrach, and Austria’s OMV—one well each.
The NOC said all the wells will significantly boost production next year by thousands of barrels of crude oil per day, in addition to adding new oil and gas reserves that will help offset produced volumes.
Libya Oil Reserves
As of 2025, Libya holds an estimated 48–49 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, making it the country with the largest proven oil reserves in Africa and placing it around ninth globally.
These reserves are dominated by light, sweet crude, which is prized on the international market because its low sulphur content makes it cheaper and easier to refine into petrol, diesel and other products.
Most of Libya’s oil is located in the Sirte Basin, with additional important accumulations in the Murzuq, Ghadames, Cyrenaica and Kufra basins. Despite this enormous resource base, Libya’s actual oil output remains highly unstable, as political fragmentation, conflict, and repeated blockades or shutdowns of oilfields and export terminals frequently interrupt production and exports.
