EXPLORING LIBYA

[Music] my foreign [Music] libya is one of the largest countries in africa it has an area of more than a half million square miles between tunisia and algeria on the west and egypt on the east it looks out over the mediterranean on the north and toward niger chad and the sudan in the southerly reaches of the vast libyan desert through bygone centuries the people of libya their origins reaching back to the mists of antiquity eked out their lives while invaders and colonizers came and so more than 2500 years ago phoenicians from sidon and tyre established themselves along the coast and greeks came too until the fourth decade of the 20th century one part or another was successfully controlled by carthaginians egyptians romans vandals byzantines arabs normans spaniards turks and finally italians but of all the ancient colonizers the romans left the most enduring and impressive monuments some were built upon foundations laid earlier by the greeks notably the seaport of apollonia [Music] and the city it served a few miles inland cyrene sabratha was one of three cities the romans built upon phoenician foundations giving the name tripolitania to what was to become one of libya's three provinces another and much greater city than sabratha was leptus magna reflecting the glory that was rome yet it rested all but forgotten for hundreds of years until brought to light by archaeologists in the 1920s the work of restoration was suddenly interrupted in 1939 but even in an unfinished state the excavations compare with the roman coliseum the forum and pompeii [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] the third city in the triumvirate the only one destined to be continuously occupied up to the present was oa or tripoli here only one conspicuous roman structure still stands a triumphal arch erected in the year 163 a.d in honor of a distinguished libyan of the day marcus aurelius nearby stands a fort left over from a spanish interlude and a stone's throw from the tripoli beach is the crumbling ruin of a turkish fort more widespread than the architectural vestiges of the past are the cultural heritages predominantly those of the arabs who swept across libya in the 7th and 11th centuries mosques in every community bespeak the faith of islam [Music] the libyans of today numbering more than a million are arabic speaking and nearly all of them are muslims following world war ii with their country an abandoned battleground the libyans assisted by the general assembly of the united nations gained their independence and in december 1951 the united kingdom of libya was created the new independent state has three provinces tripolitania the capital of tripolitania is tripoli the largest city in the domain with the population exceeding sixty thousand the capital of ceramica is benghazi at least 75 percent of the city was destroyed during world war ii reconstruction was a pressing need and new modern buildings rose rapidly [Music] the capital of the fazan is seba in the central sahara which began to develop after the formation of the kingdom [Music] besides an antique fort seba had only a collection of mud houses when a construction program was instituted there by the government in 1953 in only a few years it became a thriving up-to-date community but the economy of libya is essentially a pastoral one [Music] [Music] [Music] grown in cyrenaica and tripolitania are dates and various cereals grapes and citrus fruits and aspartal grass for fine paper making there are olives too in abundance but the productive areas are mainly along the coastal belt while inland the desert soon prevails the desert is cultivated only around an occasional oasis there are millions upon millions of acres where plant or animal life hardly exists among strange rock formations and an ocean of sand an ocean of sand now but in far off geologic times the bed of a watery ocean and beneath that sand might lie deposits of petroleum shortly after its inception and organization the libyan government drafted a law designed to permit and encourage foreign capital investment in search for oil in his tow brook palace the august king idris the first signed the document in april 1955 thus activating the petroleum law which at once marked a turning point in libya's history holding out the hope for a better economic status a hope cherished by the king his government and his people within two years of the law's passage the libyan government had granted concessions covering most of libya to the major international oil companies among them was american overseas petroleum limited or ammo sees for short an affiliate of the caltex group of companies [Music] eight concessions were obtained by embassies in widely separated parts of the country in the west in the south and in the east [Music] before geological exploration could begin and to support it later office staffs had to be recruited and trained at ambusy's headquarters in tripoli as well as in the field libyan citizens were employed to the fullest extent in all departments indeed foreigners served only in a limited number of specialized technical supervisory positions for which trained libyans were not yet available [Music] small parties of geologists did the initial pioneering with general reconnaissances in all three provinces in tripolitania in saranaca and in the fazan [Music] [Music] they were looking for apparent structures and examining the rocks for oil potential long before there could be any assurance that oil would be found at all and possibly even then not in deposits large enough for commercial development tremendous sums of money had to be spent and risked by the foreign concession holders win lose or draw for the investors the libyan people were bound to benefit from fees and taxes from the sale of goods and services as well as in the direct employment of local personnel [Music] after the first survey the field party started surface geological mapping to learn about the nature of the rocks that would later be encountered in drilling and also to locate structures offering good drilling prospects thus were the structures mapped on the surface and the sequence of geological formations determined this method was relatively inexpensive but eventually it would have to be fortified by gravity meter and seismic surveys requiring large parties and heavy complicated equipment [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] the geologists continued their spade work living on the desert they endured solitude sandstorms the chill of winter nights and the merciless sun and broiling heat of summer their detailed work was helped by aerial photographs made earlier [Music] [Music] small planes flew inland from tripoli or benghazi found the geologists tent camps in the desert and delivered some of the necessities of life before they could be sure of what lay beneath the surface the oil companies had to spend and risk millions of dollars importing supplies and machinery and supporting large field parties [Music] specialized transportation equipment geological exploration gear and drilling rigs were brought in ships to benghazi or tripoli from europe and north america most of the freight was offloaded on the docks of tripoli and many thousands of tons came ashore [Music] the heavy freight was hauled to various remote destinations [Music] me [Music] [Music] during this period dc-3s workhorses of the air flew countless missions to the interior they carried geologists and oil field workers cooks and tractor operators and mechanics all sharing space with vital supplies they flew across forbidding but fascinating country hundreds of miles without landmarks except to practiced eyes these men were modern explorers in quest of hidden treasure a new day dawned and the tents of the first pioneers were replaced by air-conditioned house trailers in many parts of the north african desert fought over during the second world war lay countless thousands of hidden landmines before the exploration crews could get on with their main task they had to detect any mines in their path and destroy them [Music] hey [Music] so [Music] in the wake of the mine clearing crews seismic parties plotted their courses [Music] you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] me [Music] is holes were drilled to receive small charges of dynamite which when exploded would send tremors to subterranean structures electronically registered on magnetic tape or film the reflections of the tremors would reveal depths and conformations of structures that might hold oil libyans and americans work together as well coordinated teams going through the complex routine of their seismic surveys [Music] when structures that the surveys had shown to be favorable were mapped out within concession areas massive drilling rigs were brought to bear they had been trucked over rough trails hundreds of miles over land from the coast and now we're assembled for action derricks were as long as 160 feet raising them to drilling position called into play all the skill of international crews of riggers [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] through every phase of operation and maintenance libyans and expatriates work together [Music] it was a big moment when drilling started at a new location the drill went down inch after inch foot after foot around the clock [Music] from the ever deepening hole core samples were taken at regular intervals and flown to tripoli to be processed and expertly examined by paleontology laboratory technicians they identified and classified the fossil remains of tiny marine creatures that died and were buried in the seabed eons ago these microfossils now provided clues to the geologic age of the rock samples and the relationships to adjacent wells thus helping to determine the status of individual wells and giving a better understanding of what might be found in undrilled parts of the surrounding area months and years of costly toil began to bear fruit there was oil in libya but just how much oil lay in reserve would take more months and years of unremitting effort by the oil companies to find out working in close cooperation with the libyan government however within a half dozen years after the enacting of the petroleum law as many as 10 important oil fields had been discovered in libya such successes had so far been enjoyed or could be anticipated was due in large measure to the wisdom of the king and his advisers in drafting eminently fair legislation in the best long-range interests of the libyan people the activities of the oil companies with the stimulation they give to trade and commerce throughout the kingdom contribute to the pattern of growth and development and national well-being libyans are already able to relax now and then in a new atmosphere of peace and prosperity [Music] is [Music] the search for petroleum continues across the vast reaches of a desert once thought worthless brave and resourceful people are working toward a brighter era in the history of libya [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music]