Libya to restart 3 oilfields as UN seeks to end stand-off
Libya was pumping about 1 million barrels daily before the halt order, with the vast majority of production in the east.
Three Libyan oilfields received orders to gradually resume production, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation, as the United Nations steps up efforts to resolve a feud between the Opec member’s rival governments that has slashed output.
The Sarir field, which has a capacity of 145,000 barrels a day, has already started pumping, while the Messla and Nafoura fields got similar instructions, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public.
No reasons were given for the directives from the Arabian Gulf Oil Co., the fields’ operator, they said. It wasn’t clear if the move signals progress in negotiations between Libya’s competing eastern and western governments, which are locked in a stand-off over the leadership of the central bank, the custodian of billions of dollars of energy revenue.
Libya’s daily oil output was cut by more than half in the past week to about 450,000 barrels after eastern authorities ordered a shutdown in response to a decision by the internationally recognised western government based in the capital, Tripoli, to replace central bank Governor Sadiq al-Kabir.
The country was pumping about 1 million barrels daily before the halt order, with the vast majority of production in the east. A full resumption of the three fields would return about 300,000 barrels per day of output.
Al-Kabir, who has been locked in a long-running feud with Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and has allies in Libya’s east, rejected the order to step down, prompting western authorities to take over the bank’s headquarters.
