Libya remains exempted from OPEC oil cuts deal
Libya has insisted that it remains exempt from the oil output reduction deal that OPEC today decided to extend by another nine months, to March 2018. According to Libya’s ambassador to Austria, who represented the country at the cartel’s meeting, it is still producing less than half of its “original production quota.” OilPrice reported Thursday.
Libya, along with Nigeria and Iran, was exempted from the original agreement, struck in November 2016, as its oil production was affected by factors other than the global glut that sank prices in 2014, according to the report.
According to Platts, OPEC sources had indicated that Libya will be granted its exemption in the extended deal, as militant activity and general political instability have caused its oil output to fluctuate considerably. Just a month ago, Libya’s daily average slumped to 492,000 as militant groups blocked pipelines carrying oil from the country’s largest oil field, Sharara, and from the El Feel field to the Zawiya export terminal.
In May, however, production recovered to almost 800,000 bpd. The National Oil Corporation has plans to raise this to over a million barrels daily by the end of this year. However, an exemption would automatically undermine OPEC’s effort to push up prices by extending the cut agreement, OilPrice indicated.
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