19 July 2017

BENGHAZI, Libya, July 19 (Reuters) - Libya is aiming to produce 1.25 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the year and 1.5 million bpd by the end of 2018, the head of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Wednesday.

Libya hopes to reach output of 2.1 million bpd in four or five years, NOC chief Mustafa Sanalla said during a visit to Benghazi.

The targets outlined by Sanalla are broadly in line with previously stated production goals.

Libya's national production has recently stood at just over one million bpd, up from lows of around 250,000 bpd a year ago. Sanalla called the plans to raise production further "ambitious".

He declined to give a current figure for national production, which he said was fluctuating daily. On Tuesday, a Libyan oil official told Reuters that production stood at 1.032 million bpd.

It was not clear if that figure included increases at NOC subsidiary Waha Oil Co, which has raised its production to 145,000 bpd, an official from the company and port sources said on Wednesday, up from 105,000 bpd last week.

Along with Nigeria, Libya is exempted from an OPEC-led deal to cut output that took effect in January. Both countries have boosted production since then, weighing on global prices.

Sanalla is due to lead a Libyan delegation to a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers in St Petersburg, Russia, on Saturday to share his country's production plans.

He has said that Libya's political, humanitarian and economic problems must be considered in any discussion about limiting the country's output.

(Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; writing by Aidan Lewis; editing by Jason Neely and Susan Thomas)

© Reuters News 2017