Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has recently stated that its oil production has reached 1.25 million barrels per day (bpd), in line with pre-January levels. In January 2020, the country’s oil industry was hit by blockades which pushed its oil production towards the 100,000 bpd level.
Libya’s oil production recovered much faster than analysts expected and put additional pressure on the oil market at the time when it was hit by European lockdowns.
Currently, Libya wants to increase its oil production to 1.7 million bpd. However, there’s also good news for the market – those extra barrels won’t come very fast. Now that Libya has managed to increase its production to pre-blockade levels, it will have to make additional investments.
According to recent reports, Libya has already talked with Total about potential investments, but it is obvious that extra oil will not be able to emerge overnight.
At this point, it is clear that the market was able to absorb a rapid increase of Libya’s oil production without big problems, although the recent months have brought volatile trading.
