On Wednesday, the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) announced that the country’s oil revenues amounted to 103.4 billion dinars ($22.52 billion) in 2021, representing 98% of the total income in that year.
In a statement, the CBL said that it had received $22.9 billion in foreign currency in 2021, and spent $24.5 billion, covering the difference from its own reserves.
The bank added that the spending system in 2021 was based on the 1/12 law, regarding the unified spending for all sectors nationwide. This takes into account the impact of the exchange rate adjustment on spending items, according to the Cabinet decision No. 429 in 2021.
Libya’s oil production has slumped to 780,000 barrels per day after maintenance work on a pipeline shut down 200,000 bpd output this week, adding to outages due to blockades at four oilfields since the end of December.
The OPEC member is exempted from production cuts due to its volatile security situation. It produced 1.14 million bpd of crude oil in November 2021, according to the latest Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) from OPEC.
The country saw major disruptions to its oil production in December, amid tensions over the holding of the Presidential elections, which were postponed indefinitely.
In recent months, Libya’s oil production and exports had enjoyed relative stability, and the country planned to raise crude output. However, as the 24 December Presidential election approached, chaos and clashes returned, and armed factions stopped production once again.
On 20 December, Libya declared force majeure on its oil exports after crude oil production had been shut at four fields, namely El-Sharara, El-Feel, Wafa, and Hamada. The fields were shut by members of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), who are tasked with protecting the oilfields, according to Libya’s NOC. The PFG reportedly closed a valve on a pipeline going from El-Sharara to the Zawiya port, and another valve from Wafa to Mellita.