Libya Oil Output Nears 1.6 Million Barrels a Day, NOC Says

Libya’s crude oil output has risen to “almost” 1.6 million barrels a day, Nuri Berruien, chairman of the state-run National Oil Corp., said in a telephone interview from Tripoli.

The North African country, which is rebuilding its oil industry after the war that ousted former leader Muammar Qaddafi last year, produced 1.465 million barrels a day in March, Berruien said on March 31. Libya holds the continent’s largest oil reserves, according to data from BP Plc, and pumped 1.6 million barrels a day before the conflict halted most of its crude exports.

Operations at Ras Lanuf, Libya’s largest oil refinery, will resume as soon as National Oil sells oil products and about 1 million barrels of substandard crude that are left over from the Qaddafi era and stored at the plant, Berruien said. The facility has a processing capacity of 220,000 barrels a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ola Galal in Cairo at ogalal@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net