Libya oil pipeline maintenance completed

Libya's state-owned oil firm NOC expects the country's crude production to partially recover in the coming days following the early completion of pipeline maintenance in the east of the country, but output remains severely constrained by field blockades in the west.

NOC's latest output guidance is around 730,000 b/d, down from 780,000 b/d earlier this week and over a third lower than Argus' estimate of Libya's average production in November.

Output dropped sharply around two weeks ago when branches of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) shut down supply from the El Sharara, El Feel, Hamada and Wafa fields in western Libya, prompting NOC to declare force majeure on crude exports from the Zawia and Mellitah terminals. Production was cut further in recent days by maintenance work on a pipeline linking the Samah and Dahra fields to the Es Sider terminal in the east of the country. That work had been expected to last one week but has been completed earlier than scheduled.

By James Keates