CAIRO, Jan. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Libya on Saturday awarded its first oil exploration licenses to foreign companies in 18 years after the United States and the European Union (EU) eased their trade embargo.

    The 15 licenses drew worldwide attention with more than 150 companies registering bids. But American companies got the lion's share.

    The biggest bid winner is Occidental Petroleum Corp. of the US Together with United Arab Emirates' Liwa company, it picked up five licenses. It won another four together with Liwa and Australia's Woodside.

    Two other American bidders, Amerada Hess and Cheveron Texaco, also won a license each.

    Other bid winners include Verenex Energy of Canada, Algeria's Sonatrach, Brazil's Petrobras and Indonesia's Medco Energy International.

    After naming the bid winners, Libyan state-run National Oil Company chairman Abdullah al-Badri announced that Libya will awardmore licenses next month.

    The US eased its trade embargo on Libya last spring as a rewardfor its renouncing of its weapons of mass destruction program. TheEU quickly followed suit, paving the way for more companies to negotiate business deals with oil-rich Libya. Enditem