By Ayman Al-Warfali
BENGHAZI (Reuters) – More than half of Libya’s oil production, or around 700,000 barrels per day, was offline on Thursday, as a standoff between rival political factions over the central bank and oil revenue threatens to break a four-year period of relative peace.
The crisis over control of the Central Bank of Libya threatens a new bout of instability in a major oil producer, split between eastern and western factions that have drawn backing from Turkey and Russia.
Output at oilfields controlled by Waha Oil Company, a subsidiary of the National Oil Corporation, has dropped to 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 280,000 bpd, engineers told Reuters on Thursday, adding output was expected to fall further.
Production has also been halted or reduced at the Sharara, Sarir, Abu Attifel, Amal and Nafoora fields, engineers have said.
That has taken roughly 700,000 bpd of oil output offline, according to Reuters calculations. Libya pumped about 1.18 million bpd in July.
Eastern factions have vowed to keep Libya’s oil output shuttered until the internationally recognised Presidency Council and Government of National Unity in Tripoli, in the west, return veteran central bank governor Sadiq al-Kabir to his post.
(Reporting by Ayman Al-Warfali; Writing by Yousef Saba; Editing by Jason Neely and David Holmes)
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