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BENGHAZI / Reuters
Libya’s Waha Oil Co says its production has reached more than 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) through the Waha and Samah fields and it expects that to increase when crude from the Jalu field comes online.
Production at the Waha field, one of the main contributors to Libya’s Es Sider export grade, resumed last month after several blockaded ports were reopened.
Exports from the field are being directed through one of those terminals, Ras Lanuf, while repairs are carried out at a second terminal, Es Sider. Both ports have been damaged by fighting.
Production has been crippled for years by an on-off blockade of the OPEC member’s largest export terminals, militant attacks by groups including Islamic State and the absence of a unified government.
Waha Oil Co said in a statement that it expected output to rise when work at the port and pipelines leading to it from Jalu field was completed, though it did not say when that might happen.
Waha field has a production capacity of 100,000-120,000 bpd. An engineer at the smaller Samah field said it was currently producing around 7,000 bpd.
Since the reopening of the oil terminals in September, Libya’s national oil production has more than doubled to around 600,000 bpd, though it remains far short of the 1.6 million bpd produced before the 2011 uprising.