Libya NOC declares force majeure on largest oil field

The Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) has declared force majeure on the country's largest Sharara field since January 7 due to its blocking by protesters.

The protests led to the suspension of oil supplies from the field to the Zawiya export terminal. Negotiations are currently underway to restore production as soon as possible, according to representatives of the company.

The Sharara field has a production capacity of 300 thousand barrels per day. The field is managed by a joint venture of NOC, Equinor, OMV, Repsol and TotalEnergies. A week earlier, it was also reported about the suspension of production at the El-Feel field (in the amount of 70 thousand barrels per day), and so far there is no new information about the status of operations at this field.

Experts believe that the events in Libya may have an impact on the prices of light oil in the Mediterranean and support such varieties as Azerbaijani Azeri Light, Algerian Saharan Blend and Kazakh CPC Blend.

According to the latest OPEC report, Libya produced 1.178 million barrels of oil per day in November 2023.