Media reports from Libya say the north African country is losing about 22,000bpd due to an ignored pipeline leak at the Sarir Tobruk oilfield.
Reports say the persisting leak is blamed on delayed budgets that have left the operating company, Libyan Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOCO), unable to maintain its oil transmission infrastructure.
The report by Oilprice said some 22,000 barrels per day are now leaking into the desert from damages to the pipeline, which links the Sarir Tobruk oilfield to a terminal in the port of Tobruk.
The leak began on Tuesday and was reported to the operating company, AGOCO, owned by the Libyan National Oil Company (NOC). On its Facebook page, AGOCO released video footage of the oil leaking into the desert.
Libya has faced various catastrophes since the dead of their leader Moumar Gaddafi. With two rival governments, the country has been unable to overcome a standoff that has seen some 380,000 barrels per day of oil taken offline over anti-government protests.
Last April, Libya declared force majeure on its 300,000 bpd Al Sharara oilfield, the country’s largest, and was also forced to take oil offline at the 70,000 bpd El Feel oilfield.
Four months ago, the eastern-backed parliament in Tobruk named Fathi Bashagha as the new prime minister, while his rival, incumbent Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, has refused to step down.
Earlier in May, Bashaga attempted to resume the role of prime minister in the capital, Tripoli, but was forced out after clashes between his militia security forces and those of Dbeibah.
The situation of things forced Bashaga to set up his government in Sirte, the gateway to Libya’s Oil Crescent. Prior to the desert leak, Libyan oil minister Mohamed Aoun told Argus that the country’s output was now around 750,000bpd, representing a 40% decline from the first quarter of this year.
Protesters are demanding a more equitable distribution of oil revenues between east and west.
Until either a power-sharing deal between the rival governments and a new deal is reached on oil revenue distribution, oil production will remain stifled, with Bashaga’s forces nominally controlling the Oil Crescent, and Tripoli controlling the Central Bank, the Oilprice report said.
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