Libya’s Oil Production Rises to 1.13 Million Bpd

Libya’s production of crude oil and condensates has reached 1,133,133 barrels per day (bpd), the National Oil Corporation said on Tuesday, several days after output resumed in the OPEC member.

Over the past 24 hours, Libya also produced 206,666 barrels of gas equivalent, following the end of the political stalemate that had halted output for more than a month.

Libya expects to reach the oil and gas production levels from before the blockade within the next few days, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said today.

Libya, which pumped about 1.2 million bpd of oil before the latest stalemate, was plunged in August into a deep political crisis over the row about the leadership of the Central Bank of Libya, the only internationally recognized depository of Libya’s oil revenues.

For the first time since the end of August, Libya’s oil production exceeded 1 million bpd on Sunday, after the warring factions reached a deal on how to elect the new leadership of the African OPEC member’s central bank.

Full-scale crude oil production resumed on Thursday, October 3, after more than a month of suspended output due to a political standoff between the eastern and western administrations in the North African OPEC producer.

Libya’s largest oilfield, Sharara, was estimated to be pumping around 240,000 bpd as of Sunday.

The end of the Libyan crisis will lead to the return of a few hundred thousand barrels of crude per day to the market, which is fearing a supply shock from the Middle East on the brink of an all-out war.

Crude production at most Libyan oilfields was suspended for over a month after the country’s eastern and western administrations clashed over who should be governor of the Central Bank of Libya.

At the end of September, the rival factions reached an agreement in UN-mediated talks over the election of the Central Bank’s leadership, paving the way to restoring oil production and exports.