Libya’s Oil Sales Fell 36% In April As Production Declined

Libya generated total revenues from oil sales worth US$1.31 billion in April, the country’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Tuesday in its regular update, which showed a 36-percent drop compared to March.

Libya’s revenues from sales of crude oil, gas, condensates, and petrochemical by-products stood at US$1.3 billion-plus more than 6.2 million euros, making the total sales worth US$1.307 billion, according to NOC’s statement.

In March, Libya had generated as much as US$2.052 billion in revenues from crude oil, gas, condensates, and petrochemical by-products.

For April, Libya’s crude oil sales amounted to US$1.247 billion, the largest portion of Libya’s total oil sales, according to NOC’s latest figures. Libya’s crude oil production in April, however, was lower than the average crude output in March because of a force majeure on one of its export terminals.

According to OPEC’s secondary sources in its Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) for May, Libya saw its average crude oil production drop by 67,000 barrels per day (bpd) in April compared to March. Libya pumped 1.13 million bpd in April, down from 1.197 million bpd in March, OPEC’s figures show.

In April, Libya’s crude oil production dipped below the 1 million bpd mark for several days after the Arabian Gulf Oil Company, a subsidiary of NOC, said in mid-April that it had decided to halt production because of the delays in the budget that is planned to allocate money to the oil firm to repair and maintain infrastructure and keep oil production online. Arabian Gulf Oil Company is the operator of the oilfields Sarir, Mesla, al-Bayda, Nafoora, and Hamada, which, combined, can pump 300,000 bpd.

Days later, NOC declared force majeure on the port of Hariga due to lack of funds for infrastructure repairs, pushing the country’s crude oil production below 1 million bpd for the first time in months as NOC was forced to suspend production at several fields. The company blamed the shortage of funds on Libya’s central bank.

In May, Libya is estimated to have raised its crude oil production compared to April, according to the monthly Reuters survey on OPEC’s production.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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