Libya on Sunday set out the terms for foreign companies to obtain oil exploration rights in the vast desert country using a transparent bidding process aimed at wooing foreign investment for its sanctions-ravaged industry.
Some 20 international oil majors took part in the presentation at the capital's Mehari Hotel.
A further presentation is to be held in London on September 15 after which companies not already operating in Libya will be required to make a formal expression of interest by September 28.
Approved tenderers will then be required to make their bids by January 10, with the exploration production-sharing agreements for the 15 blocs made available, some of which are offshore, being signed in the second half of that month.
The new transparent bidding process draws a line under the arcane and much criticised system of direct talks with individual oil companies that previously governed the upstream sector in Libya.
For the first time since relations were restored between Tripoli and Washington in June with the lifting of long-running sanctions, US oil firms were invited to take part in the process.
The US sanctions had left several American oil firms with frozen assets in Libya.
"The Americans arrived in territory already conquered since (Libyan leader) Colonel (Moamer) Kadhafi opened up about a year ago. But they quickly understood that they're not going to be the only ones and that the 'New Libya' isn't going to sell them their oil cheaply," a Tripoli-based diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
When they left Libya in 1986, American companies handed over management of their oil fields to the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC), under so-called "standstill agreements". At the time, American companies controlled 60 percent of Libyan oil production. Today that stands at 40 percent.
NOC chairman Abdullah al-Badri told the industry newsletter Middle East Economic Survey last month that talks on those companies' return to Libya were at a "very advanced stage."
The firms include Occidental, Conoco-Philips, Marathon and Amerada Hess.
Libya is desperate to woo Western investment in its oil industry, which was hampered by the long-running sanctions.
Kadhafi's regime wants to boost output to three million barrels per day by 2010, and estimates that 30 billion dollars in investment will be necessary to achieve that target.
The oil under Libya's deserts is of very high quality and relatively cheap to extract. Only about a third of Libyan territory has been explored, with geologists saying that there is plenty more oil offshore and inland in the Marzuq desert, near the border with Niger and Algeria.
With proven reserves of some 30 billion barrels, representing 50 years production at the current rate, Ghanem has said that he believes there may be up to three time that amount available. Experts are, however, sceptical about this claim.
Libya's production is currently running slightly above its Opec quota of 1.4 million barrels per day, analysts say. Revenues for 2004 are expected to reach around 15 billion dollars.