Libyan firm pumping 26 000 bpd

BENGHAZI: Libya’s Arabian Gulf Oil Co (Agoco) is producing 230 000 to 260 000 barrels per day, a company spokesman said yesterday, down some 35 000 bpd because a protest closed the Nafoura oilfield.

The company’s port of Hariga is expecting three tankers to lift oil this week, an oil official said, and another tanker was docked at the eastern port to deliver petrol for the local market. Two more tankers bringing fuel were waiting outside the port, he said.

The state oil company Agoco mainly exports oil from the south-eastern fields of Sarir and Messla through Hariga. It also has fields connected to the port of Zueitina, but protesters blocked the pipeline to that port a week ago, forcing the Nafoura oilfield, which had pumped up to 35 000 bpd, to shut down.

The closure of several oilfields across the North African country have reduced Libya’s oil production to 380 000 to 400 000 bpd, an industry source said on Friday. Libya had pumped up to 1.6 million bpd in 2010, before an uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.

The loss of oil revenue has triggered a public finance crisis, forcing the central bank to use up a quarter of its foreign currency reserves in 2014, according to official data. – Reuters