Libya’s vital oil and gas exports hit a 5-year high of $21.5 billion in 2021, driven by a boom in prices around the world, the North African country’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced.
Total net revenues for oil and gas exports last year stood at $21.5 billion as well as 30 million euros in non-dollar sales, the state-owned company said in a statement. Record levels were achieved in the last two months of 2021, raising a combined $4.3 billion in November and December.
“The end of the year 2021 recorded a recovery, and oil prices achieved their largest annual gains since 2016, driven by the recovery of the global economy from the state of stagnation due to the Corona epidemic. It is expected to continue to rise unless the market fundamentals change and global investment upstream and downstream increases” Chairman of the Board of Directors of the NOC, Eng. Mustafa Sanalla said.
NOC’s chief also added that “the ability of the oil sector in Libya to invest and advance the process of infrastructure modernization will remain weak in the foreseeable future, especially in light of the scarcity of budgets.”
“What we need more than ever is to think outside the box and create initiatives to save the infrastructure,” he stressed.
Libyan oil flows have been sharply curtailed recently, when branches of the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), which protects NOC assets and infrastructure, shut down supply from El Sharara, Libya’s largest field with a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day, as well as from the El Feel, Wafa and Hamada fields. NOC declared force majeure on exports following the blockade.
Libyan daily crude oil production also dropped due to maintenance works in some oilfields, according to the Tripoli-based NOC.
Daily crude exports in the first week of this year were 45% below the December average, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
On the bright side, Libya’s crude oil production is back to 1.2 million barrels daily, the country’s oil minister, Mohammed Oun told Bloomberg on Monday (Jan. 17).
OPEC-member Libya sits on the largest known oil reserves in Africa but been in conflict or civil war for much of the past decade. The country joined OPEC in 1962, a year after Libya began exporting oil. The National Oil Corporation (NOC) was established in 1970.
Oil prices edged up on Monday as investors bet that global supply will remain tight amid restraint by major producers. Festering geopolitical threats to supply are also supporting bullish sentiment.