Libya NEWS

The decline of Angola, from being Africa’s top crude producer five years ago to barely pumping more than war-torn Libya today, shows the heavy toll of a slump in oil-industry investment. The nation’s production has fallen by more than a third since 2015. Despite government efforts to stimulate activity, just a handful of drilling rigs now work in the deep Atlantic waters that hold the country’s greatest resources.

Libya is seeking funding from foreign oil companies to fix its ailing infrastructure after years of war and neglect, the nation's top energy official said. The state-owned National Oil Corp. was forced to shut down a leaking pipeline on Saturday, which cut the OPEC member's crude production by around 200,000 barrels a day.

Total SE is planning to increase energy investment in Libya. Libya’s state-run National Oil Corp. and Total had a virtual meeting and have decided to increase Libyan production capacity and output to the highest levels. Total and Libya's ties go back to decades. Former also holds shares in some key oil fields in Libya, including the nation’s biggest - The El Sharara and the offshore Al Jurf deposit.

Oil prices continued the journey downhill for the fourth straight day. The market is concerned with the resurgence of coronavirus and growing output from Libya. Brent decreased by 0.8%, to $42.30 a barrel. WTI fell by 0.6%. Commonwealth Bank has shown concerns saying “We don’t think oil markets are in a position to absorb the around 2% of global supply that OPEC+ are expected to restart from 1 January 2021”.

OPEC+ fears the second wave of COVID-19. The cartel is particularly troubled due to the jump in Libyan output. On Thursday, the Joint Technical Committee held a virtual meeting to discuss the issues. "In particular, a resurgence of COVID-19 cases across the world and prospects for partial lockdowns in the coming winter months could compound the risks to economic and oil demand recovery," said the panel.

With a significant drop in the new coronavirus cases in the epicentre of the outbreak, oil prices increased by 1% on Thursday. Brent went up by 0.8% and was traded at $59.57 a barrel. WTI rose by 0.9% and was traded at $53.78 per barrel. On the other hand, blockade of ports and oilfields in Libya and US sanctions on Rosneft has reignited the global oil supply worries.

Libyan state-run National Oil Corporation yesterday informed that the country's oil production fell by almost 80% ever since the Libyan National Army blocked its five key ports on January 18. The blockade has pushed the oil major to enact force majeure on exports from the terminals. NOC took to Twitter to inform that Libya's oil output tumbled to 284,153 b/d on January 24, from over 1.2 million b/d.

Oil prices dropped in the international market on Wednesday, as the Libyan crude shortage was seen offset by global fuel supply. Brent crude LCOc1 slipped by 0.2%, to $64.46 a barrel. US WTI crude futures CLc1 fell 0.3%, to $58.22 a barrel. “Market participants are already starting to fade this story – believing that this is a transitory outage,” said the commodity strategy head at RBC Capital Markets.

Oil prices slipped in the international market on Tuesday, as investors shrugged off the supply concerns over tensions in Libya. Brent crude LCOc1 dipped down 0.5%, to $64.90 per barrel. US WTI crude futures CLc1 were traded 0.2% lower, at $58.40 a barrel. Libya's state-run National Oil Corporation (NOC) is said to have declared force majeure on crude loadings from El Sharara and El Feel oilfields in Libya’s southwest.

Oil prices ramped up on Monday, pushed up by the shutting down of two Libyan crude production bases. Brent crude LCOc1 was priced 1.2% higher, at $65.60 a barrel. US WTI crude futures CLc1 were traded 1% higher, at $59.14 a barrel. Libya's state-run National Oil Corporation (NOC) yesterday informed about commencing shut down operations at two big oilfields after forces loyal to the Libyan National Army closed a pipeline.

Libyan state-run National Oil Corp. informed on Saturday about the shutdown of the country’s largest oilfield, El-Sharara due to suspected valve closure. NOC has launched an investigation on the matter. The El-Sharara oilfield, which pumps 290,000 bpd, has often been targeted by protesters or armed groups. NOC officials have revealed that the shutdown will cut Libya’s oil production to more than one million bpd.

Expectations from the OPEC-led supply cut and hopes of strengthening US-China ties sent the oil prices uphill today. International Brent crude futures climbed by 1.15%, and were priced at $60.89 a barrel. US WTI crude futures CLc1 rose by 1.2%, and were traded at $52.25 per barrel. Market traders said that disruptions to Libyan oil exports are also lifting the prices.

On Tuesday, oil prices climbed on the back of supply disruption in Libya’s El Sharara oilfield. The National Oil Company of Libya underwent losses the previous day and had to declare force majeure due to the seizure of El Sharara at the weekend by a local militia group. Brent was up by 0.6%, at $60.30 per barrel and WTI rose by 0.4%, at $51.19 per barrel.

The CEO of energy major, BP informed that the company will start the exploration in Libya with Eni in the first quarter of next year. He said that the set of offshore rig takes time and that is why he is not sure if the activity will start this year. In October, Eni bought 85% of BP’s stake in Libya oil and gas license.

The National Oil Corporation (NOC) of Libya has announced that output at the Abu Attifel field has increased. The operator of Abu Attifel, Mellitah Oil and Gas is in charge of enhancement and maintenance work at the field and has increased the condensate production by 2,000 bpd to 9,500 bpd. The company informed that depending on the work, a further increase at other wells too is expected.

Due to safety concerns and the revolution in 2011, BP denied exploration services in Libya in 2014. The energy giant has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Eni in order to resume the exploration. The deal will be closed by the end of this year so that the exploration work can be restarted in 2019.

With the recovery of Libyan production and Iraq’s southern exports creating records, the output of OPEC oil has hit a high of this fiscal year, the analysis of Reuters revealed. The production hiked in the month of August and 32.79 million barrels per day were pumped, which is 220,000 bpd more than the July numbers. The progress got restricted due to the US sanction resulting in halt on Iranian shipments.

JV of PetroCanada and Libya’s National Oil Corporation, Harouge Oil Operations recently elevated production at the Amal oilfield to 25,000 bpd. According to sources, this increase led to the slight overall oil production hike of Libya. From past few weeks the almost 1 million bpd of production was held up. After the attack in June, both Amal and As-Sarah oilfields storage tanks were damaged.