Libyan oil production to hit 1 million bpd next month, NOC says

NOC said the deal would allow production to begin immediately in Wintershall’s concession areas in eastern Libya.

It said it was targeting an increase in national production to 1 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of July from 830,000 bpd currently, following restarts at Wintershall’s fields and other fields where output has been blocked because of pipeline connections.

The agreement “provides that during this interim arrangement, the parties will attempt to resolve their dispute regarding the legal framework governing the petroleum operations,” the NOC said in a statement.

The announcement came after OPEC said its own output rose by 336,000 bpd in May to 32.14 million bpd led by Nigeria and Libya, two members exempt from the supply reduction deal. OPEC on Tuesday said a long-awaited rebalancing of the global oil market was under way at a “slower pace.”

Also on Tuesday, NOC warned authorities based in the east of the country not to use a rift between several Arab states and Qatar “as a pretext for exporting oil illegally”.

The statement came after authorities in eastern Libya threatened to block operations by Glencore, in which Qatar Holding owns a stake and which has a contract with the NOC to lift oil from the eastern port of Marsa al-Hariga.

Any such move would put at risk a partial recovery in Libyan oil output, which recently rose above 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) for the first time since 2014.