Libya’s Arabian Gulf Oil Co. will restart production at the eastern field of Messla this week, according to a person familiar with the matter. Agoco, as the company is known, will start pumping around 10,000 barrels of crude a day, said the person, who asked not to be identified because he’s not authorized to speak to the media. The oil from Messla will be sent to the Sarir refinery and used domestically, rather than exported, said the person. Messla can pump around 70,000 barrels daily at full capacity.
Most of Libya’s oil fields and ports have been shut down since January amid a civil war between a United Nations-recognized government in the west and rebels based in the east.The OPEC member produced 90,000 barrels a day in April and May, a fraction of the 1.1 million pumped on average last year.
The head of the state-run National Oil Corp. told Bloomberg last week that it will take plenty of time and hundreds of millions of dollars to revive Libya’s energy industry, even if fighting stops soon.