by Nurat Uthman
Libya is preparing to restart oil production that has been shut since late of August after an agreement on a new head of the central bank was reached, two oilfield engineers told Reuters on Tuesday.
“We are now waiting for orders from the Corporation (the state oil firm) to resume production at its normal levels after a month-long stoppage,” said an engineer from the Jalu 59 oilfield.
An engineer from the Elfeel oilfield said they took advantage of the almost one-month closure to carry out maintenance.
National production and export operations were stopped in August when the parallel government in eastern Libya declared the closure of oil facilities in a protest of the ousting of veteran Central Bank of Libya (CBL) governor Sadiq Kabir by the Presidential Council in Tripoli.
A new CBL governor, Naji Mohamed Issa Belgasem, and his deputy, Mari Muftah Rahil Barrasi were approved on Monday by the two legislative bodies; the House of Representatives in Benghazi and High State Council in Tripoli.
Belgasem and Barrasi took an oath before parliament on Tuesday during a televised session.
Nearly all of Libya’s oilfields are in the east, which is under the control of military commander Khalifa Haftar, who leads the Libyan National Army.
Libya’s National Oil Corporation said on Aug. 28 that oil production had dropped by more than half of typical levels. It has not made public any new production figures since then.
Libya’s oil output has been disrupted repeatedly in the chaotic decade since the country divided in 2014 between two administrations in its east and west following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
