MOSCOW, July 10 (RIA Novosti) – Libya has been restoring oil extraction at its largest Sharara oil field faster than expected, reaching 200,000 barrels on Wednesday, or two-thirds of its capacity production, The Wall Street Journal wrote citing a Sharara manager.
The revival of Sharara oil extraction should allow Libya to significantly increase its overall oil production volumes, which recently reached 300,000 barrels a day, twice the May output, the paper wrote.
Libya plans to begin using the full capacities of the Es Sider and Ras Lanuf ports, Spokesman for the state-run National Oil Corporation Mohammed Harari said. The first and third largest oil terminals in the country had been blocked by rebels for more than a year. Their joint capacity is about 560,000 barrels per day.
Last week, acting Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah Thani announced the end of the “oil crisis” in the country and said the authorities had regained control over the two ports.
In April, the Libyan government made an agreement with the rebels to unblock four oil terminals. Two of them, Zueitina and Hariga, were transferred to government control shortly after.
Sharara's increasing extraction volumes could bring oil production to one million barrels a day, the paper wrote, quoting oil analyst Olivier Jakob of Switzerland-based consultancy Petromatrix.
Libya's oil industry has been disrupted by clashes between various armed groups that disagree with the government, and has lost at least $14 billion over the past nine months due to port blockades.
