Sixteen companies took part in the tender, organized by Libya's National Oil Corp. (NOC) to develop an area with oil reserves estimated at 20 million metric tons (147 million bbl), Gazprom said.
The deposit is located in Libya's Ghadames Basin, near the North African country's borders with Algeria and Tunisia.
Respected business daily Vedomosti reported earlier in the day that NOC held a series of tenders involving 35 global energy giants, including ExxonMobil and BP, for ten oil and gas sectors over an area of 70 square kilometers (27 square miles). As well as Gazprom, which will develop a zone of around four kilometers, oil blocks also went to Shell, Poland's PGNiG, and Algeria's Sonatrach.
Russia's LUKoil and Novatek, the largest independent gas producer, also placed bids.
Vedomosti also reported that Gazprom is currently running three projects in Libya. The state-controlled gas giant signed a production-sharing agreement with NOC for a sector covering 10 sq km (3.8 sq miles) in the Mediterranean. The company plans to invest $200 million in the project by 2012.
Gazprom recently obtained 49.9% in two oil concessions in Libya from Germany's BASF under last year's asset swap agreement.
Libya's proven natural gas reserves total about 1.49 trillion cu m, putting fourth place in Africa after Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt. The country's annual oil production is 80.1 million tons (588.7 million bbl), and 7 billion cu m of natural gas. A total of 83% of gas produced in Libya is consumed domestically, and the remaining 17% is exported.
Libya takes first place in Africa and fifth place among OPEC countries after Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and Iraq in terms of proven reserves of sweet crude, which total 5.1 billion tons (37.5 billion bbl).
NOC was founded in 1970. It deals with prospecting and developing hydrocarbon fields in Libya. The company owns a petrochemical complex and several oil refineries.
