Libya’s oil production climbed last week to its highest level of more than 1.4 million barrels per day in 13 years, the state oil company reported.

Crude output rose to around 1.438 million bpd and condensates to nearly 49,160 bpd on Sunday to push the OPEC member’s total oil output to 1.487 million bpd, Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on its website.

 “This is the highest production rate recorded since 2013, and with this NOC has come closer to achieving its previously announced strategy, which aims to produce 1.5 million bpd of oil,” it added.

NOC chairman Masoud Suleiman stressed the need to “continue at the same pace and with the same determination to reach the required rate before the end of this year in order to support the Libyan economy.”

Libya, which is excluded from OPEC PLUS’s production quota system, had nearly 48 billion barrels of proven oil reserves as of 2020, the largest in Africa and nearly 3 percent of the global total.

Crude production peaked at around 3.4 million bpd in 1970, averaged 1.6 million bpd between 2000 and 2010 but tumbled after a 2011 uprising toppled long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The North African nation’s oil revenues soared to one of their highest monthly averages of around $3.4 billion in May after crude prices shot up to $120 due to Iran’s decision to close Hormuz Strait, through which one fifth of the world’s seaborne oil supplies pass.

Oil export earnings were $1.7 billion during January and February, a monthly average of about $850 million, according to the central bank of Libya (CBL).

Libya has sought to bring back foreign oil companies in a bid to restore previous high production levels and offset years of losses.

(Writing by N Saeed; Editing by Anoop Menon) (anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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