Image: bloomberg.com
Libya plans to increase oil production to 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2021, which will more than double its current production output.
Chairman of the state-owned oil company, the National Oil Corporation (NOC), Mustafa Sanallah has stressed, however, that this can only be achieved if security is improved throughout the country’s oilfields.
Further, he said that it was key for production to resume at the 325 000 bpd El Sharara oil field, which was seized by tribesmen, armed protesters and state guards in December.
“What happened in Sharara discourages foreign companies,” he said, adding that the country, which has been marred by civil war since 2011, produces 953,000 bpd, less than its pre-civil war capacity of 1.6 million bpd.
Production at the oilfield is expected to decrease by up to 11,000 when it restarts, owing to theft.
