RIYADH, Dec 4: When French President Jacques Chirac went to Libya last week on his first visit to the erstwhile 'rogue state' there was a crude connection to it.

Mr Chirac was accompanied by about 15 senior business leaders, including executives from French oil giant Total, gas firm Gaz de France, combat aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation and defence group Thales. Business, especially the vast unexplored energy resources and the crumbling energy infrastructure of Libya, apparently were one of the major attractions for the French president to undertake 'the historic visit' to the erstwhile 'rogue state' of Muammar Qaddafi. Analysts strongly feel the French president's 24-hour trip to Tripoli gave France the chance to stake a claim for lucrative business contracts that could follow the liberalization of business environment in Libya.

Now that most of the sanctions against Libya has been lifted, a number of US and European firms are vying to get slice of contracts to upgrade Libya's oil infrastructure and win exploration contracts.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder have already made visits to Libya during the year, apparently aimed at staking their claim on the Libyan riches.

Libya is currently regarded as "the central exploration and production buzz for 2005" among the global oil majors, looking for access to potentially giant oil and gas fields. At stake are the sought after significant sweet crude deposits in the country.

In the meantime, the long-awaited vision of Libyan oil and gas investment has also begun to take shape and major players on the energy stage are scrambling to take ensure a share in the pie. With new acreage on offer and accessible after the lifting of the US sanctions, Tripoli airport is teeming with oil and gas executives, reports confirm.

The state-owned National Oil Company of Libya is hence capitalizing on this interest and the opportunity provided after the lifting of sanction. It extended its first open-bid license round to 15 areas from the earlier expected eight. That move was widely interpreted by observers as possible test run for the new, fourth generation exploration and production sharing agreement.

The Libyan National Oil Company has offered blocks in all of its major oil and gas basins. These include the Sirte basin which has 80 per cent of the Libyan proven reserves and 90 per cent of its production. Although easy targets in the basin appear limited, yet deeper targets are relatively unexplored.

Other acreages on offer include Ghadames, Libya's second most explored basin and Murzuq - the 'most successful' area for recent investors with little exploration to date. Also available on hammer is the Cyrenica-Batnan area, where till yet only 70 wells have been drilled, with only minor finds to date. However, it is interesting to point out that rewards on the Egyptian side of the basin have been extensive over the last five years. This has raised expectation of major finds in this basin on the Libyan side as well. Also the Kufra basin and off-shore acreage are also on offer, which had minimal explorations as yet and is still virgin in some respects with interesting prospects.

Libya has significant hydro carbon reserves. Its proven crude reserves stand today at 39.5 billion barrels, and as per the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), 12 of its fields are holding at least 1 billion barrels each. Then despite lack of focused exploration on the gas sector, its gas reserves, believed basically to be chance finds, stand today at 56 tcf. Libya is thus attractive to the consumers and the beeline to Tripoli is a clear proof of that.

Sanctions over almost last two decades had pulverized its industry and energy infrastructure significantly. Compared to almost three million barrels a day of crude production in the 1970s, its current production is almost half -- around 1.5 million barrels a day. As per the current plans, Libya is targeting at 2.1 million barrels a day production by the turn of decade.

Libya's proximity to expanding European markets, also gives the country an edge over its competitors in the industry in some ways.

If oil has been a source of imperial interventions and wars in the region, as most in the region believe, the region also owes much of its glitter also to the black gold. If oil has transformed Saudi Arabia and other regional states into modern, pulsating economies, it could easily herald a new era of prosperity and development, after years of neglect and lethargy in Libya too.

It all depends on how well the Libyan leadership is plays its cards.