Reuters reports that the pipeline feeding Zawiyya refinery with 200,000 bpd of crude from Repsol’s al-Sharara oil field was blockaded again late on 9 April, slashing total Libyan oil output by a quarter. The pipeline was only open for a week after the latest blockade was lifted on 2 April. The shutdown is a significant blow to the National Oil Corporation (NOC) which promised on 5 April to raise crude production from al-Sharara to its full 300,000 bpd capacity.
Sharara's production had recovered to 213,000 barrels per day (bpd) by Sunday, when the latest stoppage began. The new blockade led the North African country's National Oil Corporation (NOC) to declare force majeure on loadings of Sharara crude from the Zawiya export terminal, the oil source said.Production of oil, gas and condensates have also been interrupted at the western Wafa field, where an armed group closed off pipelines on March 26 near the town of Nalut. The NOC said on Monday it had been losing about $9.8 million in export revenues daily due to that stoppage. Oil output from Wafa had dropped by 4,000 bpd after gas supplies at the field were shut off, but that will rise to 10,400 bpd once oil storage reservoirs are filled, the NOC said. It warned that a longer-term stoppage would carry heavier production risks and financial penalties.
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