Opec member Libya’s oil output is at around 1.05mn bpd despite a continuing outage since February at its 70,000 bpd El Feel oilfield, a Libyan oil source told Reuters on Friday.
A second Libyan oil source said production was lately fluctuating more or less around the 1.1mn bpd level. It is common for Libyan production to fluctuate due to poor infrastructure in the country.
The western El Feel oilfield was shut on February 23 and state-owned National Oil Corp declared force majeure on crude loadings at the Mellitah oil terminal the following day.
The shutdown was linked to a protest by members of the Petroleum Facilities Guards over their pay and other benefits.
While the PFG announced on March 7 that a deal had been reached to reopen the field it remains shut because of security concerns, the two sources said.
“There are still threats to workers at the field, that’s why they can’t return,” one of the sources said without specifying the source of the threat.
The second source said the presence of militias in the vicinity of the field was the cause behind the delay in reopening it.
Separately, NOC said on Wednesday it had signed a deal with French building and engineering group Artelia to manage the development of its offices in the eastern city of Benghazi.
There have been plans for years to move the state oil firm’s headquarters from the capital Tripoli back to Benghazi, but it remains unclear when such a transfer could happen.
NOC did not say when the complex would be built.
The buildings will include offices for other oil companies and a branch of Libya’s central bank, as well as a hotel complex and a conference centre, NOC said in a statement.
It said the deal had been signed by NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla and Artelia executive director Alberto Romeo and that funding would come from commercial banks.
There were no details on the cost of the project.
Most of Opec member Libya’s oil resources lie in the east of the country, but former leader Muammar Gaddafi moved NOC to Tripoli and starved the eastern region of investment.
Benghazi now wants greater influence but parts of the city are in ruins after more than three years of fighting linked to a broader conflict that developed in Libya after the country’s 2011 uprising.
Rival factions based in Tripoli and the east have vied for power over the past four years, with some groups in the east making unsuccessful attempts to sell oil independently of Tripoli.
Libya’s oil production, which was crippled by conflict and blockades after 2013, partially recovered to more than 1mn bpd last year.