London  - Libya's Sharara oilfield, the country's largest, was shutting down on Tuesday after a valve on the pipeline linking it to the Zawiya oil terminal was shut, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The exact geographical location of the valve on the pipeline was not immediately clear.

The field, which produces 290,000 barrels per day, was shut down for a few days on July 19 after an unknown group blocked a valve on the pipeline to Zawiya in the Hamada area in western Libya.

The shutdown at the time prompted state-owned National Oil Corp to declare force majeure on loadings of the crude grade. 

Prior to the shutdown, Libya was producing 1.2-1.3 million bpd, a six-year high for the OPEC member which has struggled to return to a pre-civil war capacity of 1.6 million bpd.

NOC operates Sharara in partnership with Spain's Repsol, France's Total, Austria's OMV and Norway's Equinor.

(Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar; editing by Diane Craft and Louise Heavens) ((Cairo Newsroom))