Libya’s national oil company said it resumed oil production Tuesday at two oil fields that were shut down by an armed group over the weekend. The closures caused the country’s daily output to drop by 330,000 barrels for three straight days.
The state-run National Oil Corporation said pump valves at the Sharara field, the country’s largest, and el-Feel, were reopened. It also said it lifted a force majeure, a legal maneuver that lets a company get out of its contracts because of extraordinary circumstances.
Daily production is expected to reach over 1.1 million barrels by Wednesday, the NOC said. Before the two fields were shut down, Libya’s production stood at around 1.2 billion barrels a day.
The North African nation has the ninth-largest known oil reserves in the world, and the biggest oil reserves in Africa.