Libyan oil production has edged up to around 700,000 b/d and Oil Minister ‘Abd al-Bari al-‘Arusi is confident the interim government in Tripoli can bring production back to ‘normal’ levels of 1.6mn b/d, within days of reaching a settlement with leaders of protests that have shut down all but two of its oil export terminals.
But he admits that at least one foreign operator, US firm Marathon, is in the process of negotiating its exit from the key Waha consortium, and super major ExxonMobil also plans to quit its offshore acreage. He also told the Oil and Money conference in London that gas exports to Italy through the 11bcm/year Greenstream pipeline are down by 50% after the shutdown of the Eni-operated Wafa field on the Algerian border. (CONTINUED - 1047 WORDS)
