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By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 28 September 2016:
Libya seems certain to be unaffected by the production cut-backed agreed today by the 14 OPEC members at their summit in Algiers.
The allocation of the reduced output of approaching one million barrels a day is due to be made at another meeting in November. However early in the summit, Saudi oil minister mentioned Libya as a troubled producer whose output should not be limited. One report from the summit suggested that the country might be permitted to boost production to its pre-revolutionary level of 1.2 million barrels a day. Libya was represented in Algiers by Presidency Council member Musa Koni.
Such an increase is unlikely to happen any time soon, though National Oil Corporation chairman Mustafa Sanalla has said that with the ending of the oil terminals’ blockade in the east, output could hit 600,000 bpd by the middle of next month.
As it is NOC is reporting that production has already reached 485,000 bpd. Part of the increase comes from the German company Wintershall which a fortnight ago restarted its As Sarah field concession which the company says is yielding 35,000 bpd.
Wintershall pipes this oil to Zuetina where NOC’s Sanalla has announced the arrival on 3 October of the first tanker since control of this export terminal was wrested from Ibrahim Jadhran’s Petroleum Facilities Guard by the army. The tanker, the newly-commissioned Marshall Islands-flagged Ionic Anassa, 114,000 tons, was this evening steaming through the Straits of Gibraltar heading for Malta.
