The prospect of the return of the 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil that Libya was producing before the broad-based blockade of its energy infrastructure caused it to plummet to 100,000 bpd in January has done nothing to support the oil price as it has struggled to establish a floor above the US$40 per barrel (pb) level. According to various oil analysts, Libya’s oil output might recover to at least 500,000 bpd by the end of this year and even to over 1 million bpd shortly after that, based on the continued absence of the blockade ordered on the 18 th of September by Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the rebel Libyan National Army (LNA). However, on the day that the agreement between Haftar’s forces and elements of Tripoli’s U.N.-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) was signed, Haftar made it clear that the lifting of the […]