HOUSTON (Sputnik) — Oil production in Libya has been revived and the activities in this sphere have increased over the past half a year, Hess Corporation CEO John Hess told Sputnik on Monday.
"We are in the largest oil concession there called Waha, which means oasis. Production has been restored… Maybe it is 80,000 barrels a day, we have 8 percent of that. The National Oil Company (NOC) is 59 percent they operate, and then two other companies have the balance… So, Libyan activities have increased some in the last six months, but they are still at a very small scale," Hess said on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas.
In January, NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla said that the company intended to bring its crude oil output to 1.25 million barrels a day by the end of 2017, and return to its prewar production level of 1.6 million barrels a day by 2022, adding that Libya’s oil industry needed an investment of at least $100 billion.
Libya has been in a state of turmoil since 2011, when a civil war began in the country and its longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown. In December 2015, Libya’s rival governments — the Council of Deputies based in Tobruk and the Tripoli-based General National Congress — agreed to create the Government of National Accord, to form the Presidency Council and to end the political impasse.
Hess Corporation, headquartered in New York City, is a leading global independent energy company engaged in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas.
