Cairo: Authorities in war-torn Libya are claiming they will try and double crude oil output to 800,000 barrels a day by the end of July, as the North African state looks to reopen pipelines and ports that have been closed because of the four-year civil war.
“There are efforts under way and initiatives that will be proposed during the blessed month of Ramadan to reopen the oil and gas pipelines to the ports of Zueitina, Zawiya and Mellitah,” Mohamed Elharari, a Tripoli-based spokesman of state-run National Oil Corp (NOC), told the Libya news agency Lana yesterday. “If these initiatives succeed, Libya’s crude output could rise to nearly 800,000 barrels a day,” he added.
Ships calling at Libya’s ports have been fired on in recent months.
NOC hopes to open Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, the nation’s largest and third-largest oil ports, in the coming month, both of which have been shut since last December.
Looking ahead, NOC has said it aims to boost oil production to 1m barrels a day by the end of 2015 and to 2.1m barrels by 2017.
