Libya resumes production at Sharara and El-Feel oilfields

Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah speaks during the signing ceremony for the oil refinery and gas factory project in south Libya, at the building of the National Oil Corporation in the capital Tripoli on October 3, 2021 [MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP via Getty Images]

Libya’s National Unity Government yesterday said that it had resumed production at the Sharara and El-Feel oilfields, two days after protesters shut the pipeline transporting oil from the two fields to the export ports.

“The commander of the joint operations room in the western region, Osama Al-Juwaili, has affirmed the reopening of the Rayana valve, which feeds the Sharara and El-Feel fields,” the government said on its Facebook page.

On Tuesday, the Libyan Prime Minister, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, ordered Al-Juwaili to take urgent measures to reopen the valves closed by rebels.

Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced on Tuesday that the country’s production of crude has recovered to exceed 1.1 barrels per day, with the aim of returning to a production rate of 1.4 million barrels per day.

The Petroleum Facilities Guard said on Friday that the halt of oil pumping from the fields was resulting from the “closure of the Rayana valve that feeds the Al-Zawiya refinery by an outlaw group.”

The closure of Libya’s El Feel and Sharara oilfields resulted in the loss of 330,000 barrels per day (bpd), and over 160 million dinars ($34.69 million) on a daily basis, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Sunday.

READ: Crisis deepens in Libya as largest oil field shuts down

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