Page 14 - AfrOil Week 45

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

NOC chief says Libya will not

rejoin OPEC quota regime yet

LIBYA MUSTAFA Sanalla, the head of Libya’s National confident of its ability to keep output at this level.
Oil Corp. (NOC), has reportedly indicated that Crude production rates could fall if some of the
his country does not intend to rejoin OPEC’s parties involved in the country’s long-running
production quota regime in the immediate civil conflict seek to hinder development oper-
future. ations, it said. The company pointed out that it
According to a Twitter post from a Wall was facing “very big financial difficulties” that
Street Journal reporter, Sanalla said earlier this had caused it to accumulate large amounts of
week that Libya expected to retain its exemp- debts and to delay salary payments to employees.
tion from the quota system until it succeeded in Libya is capable of producing well over
stabilising crude output. NOC anticipates yields 1mn bpd of oil and was extracting more than
stabilising at 1.7mn barrels per day (bpd), he 900,000 bpd as of the beginning of 2020. Out-
explained. put rates began plummeting, however, after the
The NOC chief did not say how quickly Libya Benghazi-based Libyan National Army (LNA)
might be able to push crude oil production back mounted a military offensive against its chief
to that level. He did tell the Wall Street Jour- rival, the Tripoli-based Government of National
nal, though, that the North African state’s out- Accord (GNA), in mid-January. The parties
put might climb to 1.3mn bpd within the next finalised a permanent ceasefire deal during
month. UN-brokered talks last month. ™
Sanalla was referring to OPEC’s decision to .
waive Libya’s requirement to curb output in line
with the agreements the organisation has signed
with Russia and other oil-producing countries.
OPEC has not required Libya to abide by its
quota system since January 2017 in light of that
country’s long-running civil conflict, which has
abated since the signing of ceasefire agreements
in September and October of this year.
Those ceasefire deals have allowed NOC and
its regional production units to push oil produc-
tion levels up from less than 100,000 bpd as of
early September to more than 1mn bpd as of late
last week. In a statement dated November 7, the
company reported that it had brought yields up
to 1,036,035 bpd.
According to the statement, NOC is not yet NOC head Mustafa Sanalla says oil output has topped 1mn bpd (Photo: 218tv.net)

PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Libya’s Zawiya refinery back on stream

LIBYA LIBYA’S 120,000 barrel per day (bpd) Zawiya – also restarted production recently, sources told
oil refinery resumed operations on October 20, Platts. The 220,000 bpd Ras Lanuf plant remains
state-owned National Oil Corp. has reported. offline, though, and there is no schedule for its
The refinery, Libya’s largest, was forced restart. The refinery was shut in 2013 owing to
to close earlier this year after nearby clashes an arbitration dispute.
between rebel and government forces. The The Zawiya refinery 40 km west of Tripoli
Tripoli-based Government of National Accord depends mainly on oil supplies from the El Sha-
(GNA) and the Libyan National Army (LNA) of rara and El Feel oilfields, situated in areas con-
Khalifa Haftar reached a UN-brokered ceasefire trolled by LNA’s forces. Sharara, Libya’s largest
agreement in October. oil deposit, restarted production in October
Two smaller refineries in Libya’s east – the after months offline, causing national produc-
20,000 bpd Tobruk and 10,000 bpd Sarir plants tion to surge to almost 900,000 bpd.

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 45 11•November•2020