On Thursday, Libyan Minister of Oil and Gas, Mohamed Aoun said that the country’s oil production has reached over a million barrels per day, after the reopening of the wells and export terminals.
In a statement, Aoun said that production resumed in record time to 1,133,000 bpd. He added that “work is still going on to reach the normal production rate.”
This comes after a number of fields and export terminals were shut down in mid-April. This led to a 50% reduction in oil production, with the country producing an average of 560,000 bpd.
Libya’s crude production had resumed at several oilfields, after the lifting of the force majeure on oil exports last week. The oil ministry had said earlier that production was at more than 800,000 bpd, and would reach 1.2 million bpd by next month.
The return of production comes at a critical time for the oil markets—and at a time when OPEC is failing to reach its production targets, while the West prods the group to turn on the taps. The instability in Libya has caused the country’s crude oil production to fall to just 629,000 bpd as of June—the latest data available from OPEC, from the more than one million barrels per day on average that Libya produced last year.
Libya also announced that it would begin loading oil for export after the battle for control of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) last week. The new NOC Chairman, Mustafa Bengadara, who replaced Mustafa Sanalla, announced the lifting of the force majeure, pledging that oil production will return to previous rates within a week.
Libya’s oil sector has been under severe political turmoil for months, exacerbating a tight market, with various groups seeking control of NOC and its revenues. As of 30 June, the country was exporting between 365,000 and 409,000 barrels per day—down from 865,000 bpd before the force majeure was declared in April, according to NOC data cited by S&P Platts.
Prior to Sanalla’s ouster, the NOC declared force majeure on loadings out of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf terminals, as well as production at the El-Feel oil field, following the previous closures of the Brega and Zueitina terminals.