Speaking to Bloomberg Television in an interview, Mustafa Sanalla, the Chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC), said the country is aiming to increase its oil production to 1.45 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of this year.

The goal is in marked contrast to the country’s production levels for much of last year, when a port blockade starting in January 2020 caused oil production to drop below 100,000 bpd. Following a lifting of the blockade in September and the agreement of a ceasefire between rival factions in October, the country has managed to restore production to the current level of 1.3 million. The country has also had talks with energy and lubricant company Total about oilfield investment.

Due to its issues with production, Libya has been exempted from the OPEC-led cuts, and Sanalla indicated that it was not yet time to remove this exemption. Indeed, the country faces other challenges to stabilising its oil production, specifically in the areas of maintenance and industrial action.

For example, earlier this year, some 200,000 bpd of oil production was lost when an oil pipeline needed to be shut down for a week to repair a leak. Members of the Petroleum Facilities Guard also went on strike last month over late wage payments, resulting in them preventing oil from being loaded onto tankers.

Sanalla also told Bloomberg that the country intends to be producing 2.1 million bpd of crude in four years’ time.