Libya’s crude oil production continues to increase as one of its companies has nearly doubled its output to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) compared to production levels before the blockade of Libyan oil ports and oilfields in January.
Libya’s Sirte Oil and Gas Production and Processing Company has nearly doubled its crude oil production to over 100,000 bpd, compared to the average 55,000-bpd production rate before the blockade, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said in a statement.
Sirte Oil and Gas carried out a program to boost well productivity and workover 24 oil wells, the NOC said.
Sirte Oil and Gas managed to double its production “despite the reduction of the Libyan Central Bank ( CBL ) to the budgets needed by the NOC to run the sector, the low level of services, the scarcity of financial resources, and the suspension of training programs,” NOC’s chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in a telephone call with Sirte Company’s chairman Massoud Suleiman.
The faster-than-expected increase in Libyan oil production, after an eight-month-long blockade, is giving OPEC and its allies in the OPEC+ group another issue to discuss at their monthly meetings, on top of the outlook for oil demand early next year.
Foreign oil and gas companies are also looking to boost investments in Libya’s oil sector.
France’s major Total, for example, plans to increase its investments in Libya’s oil industry, the NOC said last month, adding it had discussed with the company raising Libya’s production to “the highest levels.”
“The ceasefire that halted Libya’s civil war in October has begun to pay economic dividends that should improve living standards for ordinary Libyans, with a first central bank board meeting in five years and a full resumption of oil production helping to build momentum for political change,” the United Nations said earlier this week.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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