By Moutaz Ali.
Tripoli, 1 May 2017:
Oil production has topped 760,000 barrels a day for the first time in three years. National Oil Corporation (NOC) chief Mustafa Sanalla said that reopening of the Sharara and El-Feel fields had brought back some 280,000 bpd of output.
He also said today that NOC was pressing ahead to boost production still further. It is targeting 900,000 bpd by August, which Sanalla had been hoping to achieve by the end of last year. Passing through 760,000 bpd means production is now back to the level it last hit in December 2014.
“We are working extensively” said Sanalla, “to serve our country and preserve its interests despite the political challenges that target NOC’s stability, as well as the false media campaigns which only serves the interests of certain people and not the nation.”
The NOC chief noted that the collapse of both production and oil prices had meant Libyan oil exports last year had been the lowest ever, earning only around $8.6 billion. The closure of the Oil Crescent terminals from 2013 until the LNA takeover last September had cost Libyans some $130 billion.
