German producer Wintershall and Libya’s Zueitina Oil have become the latest companies to resume output from Libyan oilfields since the North African nation descended into civil war earlier this year.
Wintershall said output had resumed at eight oilfields in concessions 96 and 97 in the Libyan Desert, about 1000 kilometres south-east of Tripoli, which had been shut-in since February when the conflict began.
“We reached a production level of about 20,000 barrels per day shortly after beginning operations,” said the chairman of the company’s executive board, Rainer Seele.
“Now we have to technically stabilise production.”
Prior to suspending its operations the company was producing about 100,000 bpd from its Libyan operations.
Wintershall’s Libyan employees looked after and maintained the facilities which the company said were undamaged.
It added the infrastructure for transporting oil from the fields to the Mediterranean coast was also deemed to be in working order.
Dow Jones quoted National Oil Company chairman Nuri Berruien in an interview saying Zueitina Oil had restarted production two weeks ago and was currently averaging about 30,000 bpd. Prior to the war Zueitina was pumping an average of 60,000 bpd.
Berruien also told the news agency Agoco was in the process of restarting production from its Hamada and Beida oilfields where pre-war output averaged a combined 20,000 bpd.
