Pipeline leak cuts Libya’s oil production by 70,000 bpd



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Libya’s crude oil production fell from 60,000 to 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) on Monday as crude pumping from an oil field had to be cut due to a pipeline leak, the National said. Oil Corporation (NOC).

A leak on a 30-inch pipeline connecting the Gallo oil field to the Al-Waha oil field has forced NOC to cut production until it assesses the damage and makes necessary repairs.

The NOC did not provide a timeline on when production will be restored, but said it has contacted the ministries of petroleum and finance, asking them to expand funds needed for repairs and funds needed for avoid frequent interruptions in oil production due to poor infrastructure.

Libya has surprised many oil market observers, and probably the OPEC + group itself, after having succeeded in a few months in reducing its oil production to 1.25 million bpd from less than 100,000 in September 2020. The level of 1.25 million bpd was the volume pumped by Libya. before the start of the eighth-month oil blockade in January 2020.

Even after the blockade was lifted in mid-September and the October ceasefire, Libya’s oil production has not been fully stable so far in 2021 due to strikes by the Petroleum Facilities Guard on unpaid wages and lack of funds for the restoration and maintenance of oil infrastructure.

Libya could increase oil production to 1.6 million barrels per day by mid-2022 if the industry has the necessary funding, Libyan Oil Minister Mohamed Oun told Italian news agency Agenzia Nova in an interview published last month.

Currently, the Maghrebian producer exempt from OPEC + is cutting its pumps by around 1.2 million bpd. According to secondary sources in the latest OPEC Oil Market Monthly Report, Libya’s crude oil production averaged 1.163 million bpd in June, up from 1.157 million bpd in May.

By Charles Kennedy for Oil chauffage

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