Sounds Like Libya Is Getting Out Of The Oil Business

Reuters is reporting:

Two years of turmoil since the Arab Spring and some of the toughest terms in the business have led international oil companies to reassess their role in North Africa, with U.S. firms looking keenest to leave.

Libya and Algeria are among Africa's top four oil producers. Together with Egypt, they are major suppliers of gas to Europe and their budgets depend heavily on energy revenues.

But Libya has not turned into the bonanza some foreign oil firms had hoped for, while the cost to reward ratio of producing gas in Egypt and Algeria looks less appealing as new finds in more politically stable places like Tanzania offer alternatives.

For some U.S. companies, the prospect of shedding non-core assets and cashing in on the shale gas boom at home seems increasingly attractive, analysts say.

At least seven firms, five of them American, have abandoned projects, frozen activities or sold stakes worth billions of dollars in Libya, Algeria and Egypt in the past 18 months alone.