( 3 minutes read)
· Libya’s National Oil Corporation has imposed force majeure on exports from its largest oil field after a militia group forcefully shut it down an oil well just days after it resumed production
· Libya’s petroleum sector represents 95% of its export earnings and 60% of its GDP
Libya’s National Oil Corporation has imposed force majeure on exports from its largest oil field after a militia group forcefully shut it
down an oil well just days after it resumed production. A sustained recovery in Libya’s oil production is not currently on the cards.
The shutdown was demanded by the armed group’s leader Mohamed Khalifa, who is linked to the renegade general Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army. Haftar’s forces had retreated in May after a prolonged campaign to capture the capital Tripoli failed.
Libya’s southwestern Sharara field previously had a 300,000 barrel per day output. The recent attack from the militants would give a further jolt to the oil production in the country. The output in Africa’s third-largest oil producing nation plummeted in late January from around 1.2 million bpd to just over 320,000 bpd. Now it is estimated to be around a mere 90,000 bpd. The crisis exempted Libya from OPEC’s production cut agreement. Libya’s petroleum sector represents 95% of its export earnings and 60% of its GDP.
