Unrest in Libya could lead to oil supplies from the North African producer being unavailable to the market for months, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said on Monday.

The US bank said initial reports suggested companies had already shut down onshore production and it estimated as much as 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil may have been shut down in the country.

'Output could take months to come back,' it said in a note to clients.

It said the oil market's ability to deal with further unrest in the Middle East remained very limited. – Reuters