Zelten oil field 3.39

The Zelten oil field is located at the foot of the Zelten Mountains, about south of Brega in Concession 6. Zelten holds the title as the largest oil field in the Gulf of Sidra. The 229 wells in Zelten use a gas lifting system. The Zelten oil field is not associated with the town Zelten, which is located in the North-West of Libya.BackgroundDiscovered in 1956, Zelten was Libya's first major oil well, producing about 17500oilbbl/d. In 1959, its reserves were estimated at 2.5Goilbbl of 38° API oil, lying at 5,500-7,600 feet. Esso Standard began production of Zelten in 1961. The Zelten gas-lift system was installed during the period from 1969 to 1971 and represented one of the first uses of gas lift on a fieldwide basis to produce the high volume wells typical of Middle East Oil fields. In 1979, approximately 500000oilbbl/d of total liquid was being produced by gas lift. By 2006, the accumulated production of the Zelten field reached 2,426 mmb of oil and 1506Gcuft of associated gas.Sirte Oil CompanyThe Sirte Oil Company (SOC), a subsidiary of the National Oil Corporation, was originally created in 1981 to take over Exxon's holdings in Libya. In 1986, SOC took over the assets of Grace Petroleum, one of the five US companies forced by the US government to leave Libya in 1996. SOC operates the Raguba field in the central part of the Sirte Basin. The field is connected by pipeline to the main line between the Zelten field and Brega. Besides Zelten, SOC is in charge of two other gas fields (Attahadi and Assumud) plus the Brega liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.