Due to the disruption of maintenance and construction work, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) has reduced oil production by 100,000 barrels per day and suspended oil export operations at the Sidra port, the largest oil port in the country.
"The production cut was due to the inability to conduct maintenance work for several tanks destroyed by wars, and the failure to implement some much-needed projects, including establishing new tanks," the NOC said in a statement Friday.
It said the Waha Oil Company was forced to reduce its production to 100,000 barrels per day due to the lack of storage capacities after halting the maritime traffic in the Gulf of Sirte ports.
The NOC head Mustafa Sanalla said that 11 out of 19 reservoirs in Sidra port are out of service. He attributed the reasons for reducing production to leaks in the pipeline network and surface facilities linking the production and shipping equipment.
"Production could have continued as usual without a reduction, but the fragility of the infrastructure in the oil sector prevented that from happening," Sanalla said.
He blamed the Audit Bureau for the failure of the NOC to implement new projects that would contribute to increasing oil production capacity, saying it "handcuffed" the corporation and its subsidiaries and is "hindering the liftoff of the national economy."
It is noteworthy that the National Oil Corporation had announced a temporary halt to exports from the Brega, Zueitina, Ras Lanuf, Al Zawiya, Melita, and Al Sidra ports due to bad weather conditions up the Libyan coast.
