Libya seeks to be exempted from OPEC production curbs as it works to increase its output capacity to two million barrels per day by 2022.
“OPEC and non-OPEC [producers] for the last two years understood very well the Libyan situation and they gave us full support to keep our production,” Chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) Mustafa Sanalla said November 15.
Sanalla told The National that Libya is far from its production prior to the civil war due to the lack of security and investment, noting that OPEC and its allies have supported NOC in the past two years.
He explained that the support is expected to continue in the next year as OPEC and its allies will convene in Vienna in early December to discuss the possible cuts to bolster the prices, which decreased by 25 percent to become $65 per barrel on Nov. 15 after it had increased to $80 per barrel in the summer.
“Libya’s situation is difficult and to be frank with you, we have lost around 370,000 bpd two days ago,” he said.
Libya has several technical problems, so it sometimes loses 80-70,000 bpd and sometimes 100,000 barrels bpd because of maintenance issues and the lack of investments, he added.
“Opec, I think has understood very well the situation,” he concluded.
