TRIPOLI - Libya expects to be back to pre-war oil production in October, later than previously forecast due to interruptions and the slow return of oil services firms to the North African country, Deputy Oil Minister Omar Shakmak told Reuters.
“If everything goes as planned and there are no more interruptions, I think within three months time from now ... we hope we will achieve the 1.6 (million barrels per day),” he said.
“Our plan was for by the end of July, the second quarter, but there are a lot of reasons - one of them the interruptions...and also the delay of the support from oil technical service contractors. They are not back 100 percent.”
Shakmak said current output was 1.56 million bpd, climbing back up after three major oil exporting terminals in the east, shut down by political protests before Libya's July 7 elections, restarted. Libya plans to increase its production capacity to 2 million barrels by end-2015, he said.
“We're talking about the capacity of the production but the plan is that we should be able to have such production,” he said. - Reuters