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Oil output has dwindled to less than one quarter of a 2011

Libya's oil production remains at less than 400,000 bpd

TRIPOLI, January 13, 2016

Libya's crude oil production remains under 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) after militant attacks on oil facilities last week, the Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Tuesday.
 
Oil output has dwindled to less than one quarter of a 2011 high of 1.6 million barrels per day reached before an uprising toppled Gaddafi in 2011.
 
"Production of crude oil today is less than 400,000 barrels, it's still the same," the spokesman of NOC Mohamed Al-Harari said.
 
Islamic State attacks escalated in Libya last week, including on the two major oil terminals Es Sider and Ras Lanuf. Militants and the Petroleum Facilities Guard clashed, causing fires at five oil storage tanks in Es Sider and two others at Ras Lanuf about 13 miles (20 km) away.
 
NOC emptied oil storage tanks at the Ras Lanuf terminal as a precaution after the Islamic State attack, the eastern-based government said on Monday.
 
However, Al-Harari denied the oil has been taken out of Ras Lanuf : "When the two tanks were on fire, about 30,000 to 40,000 barrels were transferred to a different place but not out of Ras Lanuf."
Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, Libya's biggest oil ports, have been closed since December 2014. They are located between the city of Sirte, which is controlled by Islamic State, and the eastern city of Benghazi.
 
Al-Harari also denied that boats had tried to attack the eastern oil port of Zueitina. The spokesman for the Petroleum Facilities Guard said on Sunday that three boats had tried to storm the port and the guards repelled the attack, hitting one of the vessels and setting it on fire.
 
"We have not received any reports from the industrial security unit stating any security breaches, but we don't know if something happened outside the fence of the port and its facilities," Al-Harari added.
 
In a separate incident, a security source form the coastal town of Zuwarah said workers in the western Mellitah oil port were evacuated for few hours early on Tuesday after two armed groups exchanged fire near the complex. The workers returned to the facility later, the source said.
 
It was unclear which groups were involved in the incident. Al-Harari said the company has not received a security report.
 
Islamic State has used the security vacuum to expand its presence in Libya, though it has not taken control of oil installations there.
 
The United Nations is trying to win support for a deal to form a national unity government in Libya, but the plan has faced resistance from members of the rival parliaments.--Reuters
 



Tags: Oil | NOC | libya | production |

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