Libya’s Arabian Gulf Oil Company has resumed output at up to 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) to meet domestic needs, while exports are still halted, engineers said on Sunday, after a standoff between factions shut most of the country’s oilfields.
On Saturday, the Arabian Gulf Oil Company, the operator of Libya’s Sarir, Messla and Nafoura oilfields, issued an instruction for production to restart.
The resumption, below the fields’ full capacity, is intended only to supply electricity and fuel plants for domestic needs, the engineers told Reuters. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
Factions in the east of Libya, where oil production is concentrated, shut output down in August after factions dominant in western Libya ousted veteran Central Bank of Libya governor Sadiq al-Kabir and replaced him with a rival board.