Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced Thursday that oil production resumed at five major fields. According to the Libyan News Agency, the production and shipment of oil began in the fields of Nafoora, Tibesti, Ghani and Elbeida after a three-month downtime.
Besides, according to NOC, on July 21 the loading of 1 mln barrels of oil destined for Italy onto the next tanker under the Maltese flag started. The corporation noted that "the production is carried out at the level of 70 thousand barrels per day, gradually it will be brought up to normal indicators."
The day before Al-Fil, one of the biggest oil fields of Libya, resumed its work. Up to the moment when all the wells were put into operation the production rate there did not exceed 40 thousand barrels per day.
On July 15 the new chairman of the board of directors of the National Oil Corporation of Libya Farhat Bengdara announced the "immediate" resumption of work in the main oil fields and export ports of the country. This became possible after agreements were reached with influential figures and elders in the eastern region of Libya, who promised to unblock the facilities closed as a result of the protesters' actions. Since April, the main liquid sea terminals of Libya's "oil crescent" have been blocked. As a result, force majeure was declared at the ports of Zuwetina and Brega. Then they stopped oil production at Al-Fil, El Sharara and other sites.
Appointment of new head of NOC
Bengdara assumed his duties on July 14 by decree of the Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, who had previously dismissed the head of the corporation, Mustafa Sanalla (who had headed the company since 2014). The latter's resignation was one of the protesters' main demands. The new head of NOC promised to fulfill their other demands, which were ignored by the previous leadership, including "achieving a fair distribution of oil revenues," solving the country's fuel and energy crisis, and helping to improve the living standards of local people.
Libya, an OPEC member, has the largest hydrocarbon reserves in Africa. Before the country's 2011 civil war, it was the world's 12th largest oil exporter. The country produced 1.6 million barrels of oil per day.
Earlier, after a truce between western and eastern forces in the country, production was brought up to almost 1.2 million barrels per day. The duopoly that arose with the appointment of the new Prime Minister Fathi Bashagha and Dbeibeh's refusal to resign resulted in the blockage of key export ports and fields, causing oil production to drop first by 850,000 barrels per day and later almost completely halted. Experts estimated the country's daily financial losses from this as $150 million.
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Based on materials TASS