Oil production at Libya’s Sharara field, the country’s largest, was resuming on 6 September after a valve was reopened on a pipeline shut by an armed group for more than 2 weeks, Libyan oil industry sources said.
“We have just started, little by little,” said one source at the field, who asked not to be named. He said it would likely take 3 to 4 days for production to reach normal levels.
Sharara had been producing up to about 280,000 B/D until it was forced to shut on 19 August.
The blockade on the pipeline leading from the field to the Zawiya terminal on Libya’s Mediterranean coast was lifted on 5 September, with the reopening of a valve near the western town of Zintan.
The National Oil Corporation lifted a force majeure declaration on loadings of Sharara crude at Zawiya on 6 September after the field reopened.