Libya reopens two oilfields on way to recovering output

The Sharara oilfield, above, has been reopened by Libya’s National Oil Company along with the El Feel oilfield. Ismail Zitouny / Reuters

Libya’s National Oil Company (NOC) said it has reopened two oilfields this week, as it continues to recover oil production lost during the civil strife that followed the downfall of the country’s former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, five years ago.

The Sharara and El Feel oilfields were reopened this week after a blockaded pipeline was reopened, and could add a further 175,000 barrels per day (bpd) to production within a month and 270,000 bpd within three months, according to a statement by NOC.

Libya’s output has been rising for months since it hit a low of about 250,000 bpd in August, and was up 70,000 bpd last month at 580,000 bpd, according to the International Energy Agency.

But that was still well short of the average production rates of 1.6 million bpd before the fall of Gaddafi.

Libya – as well as similarly troubled Nigeria – were exempted from last month’s deal by Opec and are allowed to push their output back to normal levels, which for Libya will depend on rehabilitating its oilfields, pipelines and export terminal infrastructure.

The NOC statement also said it was preparing to load its first oil tanker at its largest export terminal, Es Sider, which is situated about 800 kilometres east of Tripoli, since being blockaded by a rival faction to the government two years ago.

Most of the country’s exports have been loading from the Ras Lanuf terminal, 23km east of Es Sider.

“There were no pay-offs and no backroom deals. For the first time in nearly three years all our oil can flow freely. I hope this marks the end of the use of blockade tactics in our country,” the NOC chairman, Mustafa Sanalla, said in the statement on the company’s website.

Even with the oilfield and terminal restart, NOC looks unlikely to reach its goal of pushing production back to 900,000 bpd by the end of this year, a level it exceeded in October last year only to see output plummet.

“Two years of civil unrest and oil sector sabotage have led to the repeated shutdown and restart of terminals and oil fields,” the IEA noted in its report on the country this month, calling Libya’s oil sector recovery “fragile”.

The Sharara oilfield is operated by a joint venture between NOC and Spain’s Repsol, France’s Total, Vienna-based OMV, in which Abu Dhabi has a substantial stake, and Norway’s state oil company, Statoil. It has capacity to produce 330,000 bpd.

El Feel is operated by a joint venture between NOC and Italy’s ENI, with capacity of 90,000 barrels a day.

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