(Author: Libyan Gazette Editorial Staff)
On Sunday, Libya’s state oil corporation announced that it will not get involved with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)’s oil production cuts in the the “foreseeable future”.
According to the National Oil Corporation (NOC)’s Chairman Mustafa Sanalla, since Libya has only recently resumed oil production in its major oil facilities, it is crucial that the country continues to progress towards producing oil at its full capacity,
“Libya is in such a dangerous economic situation, there is no way it can participate in OPEC production cuts for the foreseeable future,” explained Sanalla to delegates at the Arab-Austrian Economic Forum in Vienna on Friday.
After major oil facilities were reopened in Libya’s oil crescent region in September, production has risen to about 600,000 barrels of oil a day.
Though the increase in production is a vast improvement, Libya has yet to reach the rate of production of 1.6 million barrels of oil a day it was producing before the 2011 uprising.
In a desperate attempt to resolve the challenges Libya’s economy is facing, the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) has resorted to extracting funds from the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
Aware of Libya’s critical economic situation, OPEC will soon meet to discuss a proposal for the oil production cuts that will exempt Libya.
The NOC aims to reach a production level of 900,000 barrels of oil a day before the end of the year and 1.1 million barrels of oil a day in 2017. To reach that target blockades on pipelines connecting the western oil fields of El Feel and Sarara need to be lifted.