Italians Get Libyan Oil Before WWII

Not sure if this thread has been done before but here we go.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_Libya

"Oil reserves in Libya are the largest in Africa and among the ten largest globally'

Oil was discovered in Libya in 1959

Italy suffered from, among many other problems, a shortage of natural resources, including oil reserves.

Does anyone know of a way Italy might discover oil in Libya before WWII, or was the technology too primitive to find it?

And if they could, how would this effect Italy and her Ally Germany in WWII?
 

Deleted member 1487

Does anyone know of a way Italy might discover oil in Libya before WWII, or was the technology too primitive to find it?
Nope:
800px-Libya_location_map-oi.jpg


The oil is far from any major population center, plus there is very little infrastructure development in those areas (including a lack of rail lines even linking cities on the coast let alone way out in the desert). So Italy can find the oil in a weird dumb luck situation, but they'd need to find it at least in the early 1930s to develop the necessary infrastructure to get it...but then would have to spend a huge sum to have the necessary deep drilling. So what doesn't Italy spend on in the 1930s in order to fund a build up to get a the nearest oil field?

Here is the history of Italian oil exploration, which does not bode well for finding any oil:
http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/libyanoil.htm

Try the ASB forum for threads on the oil being developed for WW2.
 
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