Libya’s biggest oil field Sharara is said to resume production

Cairo: Libya’s Sharara oilfield, the country’s biggest, began pumping after the reopening of a pipeline to the Zawiya refinery.

Sharara was producing again after a one-day halt, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who isn’t authorised to speak to news media and asked not to be identified. The North African nation’s largest field had stopped pumping on Sunday. The person gave no explanation for the closing of the pipeline that triggered the halt in output at the field.

Libya was producing 1.1 million barrels a day as of March 1, with Sharara contributing 300,000 of that. The field is run by a joint venture between the National Oil Corp. and Repsol SA, Total SA, OMV AG and Statoil ASA. Sharara stopped pumping several days after output plunged at another of the Opec member’s biggest deposits, El-Feel.

Libya, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has struggled to boost oil production amid the lingering effects of civil strife that erupted earlier in the decade. Output has risen from 370,000 barrels a day two years ago, though it remains well below the 1.8 million barrels a day Libya pumped before the ouster and killing of former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Major oilfields including Sharara and El-Feel have experienced sporadic disruptions before, occasionally setting back the revival.