Libya’s state-owned Sirte Oil on 16 July announced two discoveries on its Concession Area Six near its Zelten (Nasser) field. The announcement came as several oil projects hit by recent protests restarted operations. Well 4 E-1 tested at 1,751 b/d of light oil and 0.96mn cfd gas in the al-Harrach layer; well 5 tested at 434 b/d of 30.4 °API oil and 1.49mn cfd.
Production restarted on the 325,000-350,000 b/d Waha (Oasis) group of fields on 9 July and on 12 July the Repsol-led 360,000 b/d Sharara field came back after a shut-in due to protests at the Zawiya export terminal. “As far as I am aware, Sharara is flowing as smoothly as can be,” noted a source close to the project. Also on 12 July, OMV announced production had returned on its projects and by 15 July had “stabilized at normal levels.” OMV is junior partner in the Occidental-led Zueitina project, which prior to the 25 June shutdown as a result of protests at Zueitina terminal had been producing around 35,000 b/d. There the good news ends. On 16 July armed protesters stormed Zueitina port, shutting down operations yet again, Reuters reported. Prior to this latest incident, on 13 July, Oil Minister, ‘Abd al-Bari al-‘Arusi met with Zueitina protesters and apparently persuaded them to suspend their strike. (CONTINUED - 314 WORDS)
