Libya’s oil production at 432,000 bpd: NOC chairman

Libya is producing 432,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil, National Oil Corp Chairman Mustafa Sanallah said on Tuesday.

Of these around 350,000 bpd is exported, Sanallah told the National Oil Companies Congress.

Sanallah said Libya is aiming to increase output by 200,000 bpd in the coming weeks, in large part by resuming exports from the field of the same name operated by Waha Oil Co.

Exports from the field, a joint-venture between the NOC and U.S. companies Hess, Marathon and ConocoPhillips, have been under force majeure for months as a result of security problems.

The Es Sider port, the main export terminal for Waha, has been under force majeure since December, when fighting between rival factions led to a fire. Other fighting damaged the fields themselves in March.

“We are making maintenance required on the oilfield and the terminal,” Sanallah said.

Sanallah said the NOC is also close to a deal with local factions that would enable it to reopen the El Sharara and El Feel oilfields, which used to pump more than 400,000 bpd.

“We have good progress - we have dialogue,” Sanallah said, adding they could reach an agreement “hopefully before Ramadan. Maybe today.”

The 340,000 bpd El Sharara field has been closed since November, with residents of Zintan, a town in western Libya, blocking the pipeline to the Zawiya port, demanding that a force loyal to Tripoli leave the field.

Sanallah said NOC has supplied the residents of Zintan with more than 70 trucks of diesel, gasoline and other fuels over the past week, though local officials said they had not received the deliveries as recently as last week.

The southern El Feel oilfield, co-run by NOC and Italy’s ENI, is closed because Zintani security guards have gone on strike over salary payments.