Exxon Mobil on Monday announced a return to doing business with Libya while seeming to downplay the news under the cryptic headline: ExxonMobil Signs EPSA IV Agreement for Exploration in Offshore Cyrenaica Basin.

Exxon confirmed that its subsidiary, ExxonMobil Libya Ltd., has signed an exploration and production sharing agreement, or EPSA, with Libya’s National Oil Corp. to begin exploration offshore Libya.

The agreement covers the large Cyrenaica Basin Contract Area 44, which was awarded in the second round of EPSA IV licensing in October. The contract area comprises 2.5 million acres and is located offshore in water depths ranging from 10 to more than 10,000 feet.

“We are pleased to be back in business in Libya with our success in the second licensing round,” said Phil Goss, President and General Manager of ExxonMobil Libya. “In the past we worked closely with our Libyan partners to achieve many firsts in the Libyan petroleum industry, such as discovering and producing the first Libyan oil field, shipping the first oil to market and building the Marsa El Brega facility including the LNG plant. We look forward to working with the NOC and Libyan government to achieve great successes in Libya once again.”

In 2003, U.N. sanctions were lifted on Libya and in 2004, the U.S. lifted sanctions. U.S. crude imports from Libya, resuming for the first time since 1980, averaged 18,000 barrels a day in 2004 and in the first nine months of 2005 have averaged 43,000 b/d, according to the Energy Information Administration.