
Libya Signs Geological, Geophysical MoU with Türkiye on Offshore Areas, NOC Says
Libya's National Oil Company (NOC) had signed a memorandum of understanding with Turkish state oil company TPAO to conduct a geological and geophysical study of four offshore areas, NOC said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
"Discussions were also held regarding conducting a two-dimensional seismic survey (10,000 km long), and processing the data resulting from these surveys within a period not exceeding 9 months," Libya's state oil firm said in a statement.
NOC said the agreement was signed in Istanbul by the two companies' executives. It provided no further details.

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Morocco, for instance, in the midst of persistent droughts severe enough to mandate water rationing in urban areas, paradoxically functions as a mega-exporter of water-thirsty tomatoes, citrus, melons, berries, and avocados. Its primary trading partner for this exchange is Europe, eerily perpetuating an extractive dynamic disguised as free trade. Meanwhile, lucrative profits flow to private exporters and satisfy European consumer demand for off-season luxury produce, but the true cost is borne by depleted aquifers and communities facing shrinking water quotas. Similarly, Jordan, drawing down the shared Al-Dissi aquifer that is under the strain of scarcity, channels high-quality groundwater into growing peaches and nectarines, again for export. A common trend begins to emerge in which water-thirsty goods are prioritized over achieving relative domestic food sovereignty. Israel has even managed to take things a step further. 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And, why Jordan continues to extract water from non-renewable aquifers at rates far exceeding the ability to replenish, to supply farms growing fruit for export while clinging to hopes of large-scale desalination, despite lacking the fiscal capacity or sources of sustainable energy to deploy it meaningfully. Such cognitive dissonance is jarring, since present-day policymakers actively accelerate water depletion for short-term export gains, while banking on unaffordable or ecologically questionable technologies to bail them out later. This 'magical thinking' ignores a harsh arithmetic: the energy cost and environmental footprint of desalinating seawater for basic survival would be exponentially higher than the water that is effectively, and recklessly, exported today in every tonne of off-season berries or citrus fruit. 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Local food systems atrophy as once-thriving milling industries across Iraq, Syria and Palestine have collapsed, forcing 'Fertile Crescent' countries to become flour importers despite their proximity to the historical heartlands of wheat. Water flows perpetually uphill toward power and capital. The true cost of this — which can be measured in depleted water reserves, escalating import bills, lost agricultural resilience, and the deepening vulnerability of the majority — is borne by the populations and the very ecological stability of these countries. Each tonne of exported citrus uses 560 cubic meters of irreplaceable Egyptian groundwater. Each hectare of Moroccan avocados consumes 1.5 million liters a year, while the taps of the local population run dry. It is a system that sacrifices tomorrow's survival in favor of today's political quietism and foreign exchange — a slow-bleed crisis in which the most vulnerable are the first to pay as aquifer levels fall, deserts advance and soaring bread prices rip up social contracts. Addressing this requires a dismantling of the political economy that privileges water exports over conservation and local nourishment — a task that demands much more courage than simply investing in the next desalination plant.


Asharq Al-Awsat
4 days ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Libya Signs Geological, Geophysical MoU with Türkiye on Offshore Areas, NOC Says
Libya's National Oil Company (NOC) had signed a memorandum of understanding with Turkish state oil company TPAO to conduct a geological and geophysical study of four offshore areas, NOC said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. "Discussions were also held regarding conducting a two-dimensional seismic survey (10,000 km long), and processing the data resulting from these surveys within a period not exceeding 9 months," Libya's state oil firm said in a statement. NOC said the agreement was signed in Istanbul by the two companies' executives. It provided no further details.