Libya’s Minister for Oil and Gas, Mohamed Aoun stated that production this year is expected to reach about 1.4 million barrels per day. Aoun confirmed that production on Monday amounted to 900,000 bpd.
In a statement on the ‘Fawasel’ platform, he added that production will return to about 1.3 million during the next two days. This is after production resumed in the El-Sharara, El-Hamada, El-Wafa, and El-Feel fields.
Aoun added that the closure of the ports of Sidra, Ras Lanuf, and Hariga was normal due to bad weather conditions.
On Monday, oil production resumed by one million barrels at Libya’s three largest fields, the El-Hamada, El-Wafa, and El-Feel oil fields. This came after the fields had been shut down by the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), a paramilitary force meant to protect the country’s energy facilities, according to the NOC.
The shutdowns across four fields had previously lowered the nation’s crude output by about 350,000 barrels a day.
Libya’s daily production fell below 1 million barrels as a result of the stoppages, with authorities forced to suspend crude exports from the country’s western Zawiya and Mellitah ports. Daily oil exports in the first week of 2022 were 45% below the December average, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Phil Flynn, a senior analyst at Price Futures in Chicago stated that “oil prices are following the stock market lower on Omicron worries.” He added that the market also retreated from early-session gains, after Libya announced an increase in production output.