For the first since July 2013, Libya’s oil production has averaged over a million bpd (barrels per day) over a full month.
The North African country produced 1.133 million bpd of total liquids in January, of which 1.083 million bpd was crude oil.
While this is still some way below the bpd rate of 1.6 million bpd the country was achieving before the 2011 uprising, it represents a significant milestone for the country as it struggles to rebuild production in the face of weather conditions and attacks on infrastructure by rival factions. Production started to increase again in 2017 when the main fields and terminals reopened, but the country had until now failed to maintain over a million bpd for a single full month.
With their production difficulties in mind, Libya and Nigeria were originally exempted from the OPEC-led production cuts, enabling them to take advantage of higher production whenever possible. Both countries later agreed they would also contribute to the deal with a shared cap of 2.8 million bpd. With Nigeria’s oil production standing at 1.736 million bpd in January, the two countries appear to have reached the level of their shared cap.
Oil giants like ExxonMobil, the maker of lubricants for Mobil UK stockists, had originally returned to the country following the 2003 lifting of sanctions imposed on Muammar Gaddafi’s government, only to leave or scale back their presences due to a worsening security situation following the 2011 uprising. Libya’s National Oil Corporation currently dominates production in the country.
