Tuesday, Oct 25, 2011
(Adds details.)
By Benoit Faucon
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
LONDON (Dow Jones)--A giant Libyan oil field partly owned by Repsol YPF SA (REP.MC) has restarted production after an eight-month shutdown, as output ramps up after Moammar Gadhafi's death eased security concerns.
Speaking to Dow Jones Newswires, Nuri Berruien, chairman of Libya's National Oil Co., said the Sharara field in Libya's Southern desert was producing 60,000 barrels a day and may soon reach 100,000 barrels a day.
The resumption has brought overall current production in the North African nation close to 500,000 barrels a day, Berruien said.
Repsol didn't return a request to comment.
The field suffered minor damage to facilities such as air conditioning, said Abderrauf Elhabroush, a Tripoli representative of the Feb. 17 Coalition for oil and gas. The Coalition is a volunteers' group of oil and gas workers set up to coordinate the resumptions after the war.
Sharara, which was producing over 200,000 barrels a day before being shut down by civil war in February, is operated by a joint-venture whose foreign partners also include OMV AG (OMV.VI) and Total SA (TOT).
OMV didn't return a request for comment.
-By Benoit Faucon, Dow Jones Newswires; +44-20-7842-9266; benoit.faucon@dowjones.com
(Ilan Brat in Madrid and Nicole Lundeen in Vienna contributed to this report.)
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
25-10-11 1116GMT
