18 September 2013, News Wires – Libya’s oil output has climbed to 620,000 barrels per day as fields continue to ramp up after restarting earlier this week.
Reuters cited National Oil Corporation (NOC) executive board member Mustafa Sanalla as saying output from the El Sharara field had hit roughly 300,000 bpd, while production at the El Feel field had reached about 70,000 bpd.
The news agency cited another unnamed NOC official as saying El Sharara was expected to hit its maximum capacity of 330,000 bpd by Thursday.
The official added that output at El Feel would climb to 90,000 bpd over “the next few days” as workers tried to get the fields water injection units going.
Libyan output had fallen to a tenth of its 1.5 million bpd capacity as feuding tribes, militia and protester groups stifled production over the past two months.
Output began to climb as fields started to come back on line on Monday after the government claimed to have secured a tentative deal with protestors in the country’s west.
Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said earlier this week his country was losing roughly $130 million a day due to the protests but stressed he wanted resolve the situation through dialogue and not force.
On Tuesday, US supermajor ExxonMobil confirmed it was scaling back its business in Libya amid growing security concerns in the country.
– Upstream
