Cairo
Libya’s national oil company announced Sunday it was resuming production at the country’s largest oil field as rival officials from eastern and western Libya began peace talks, part of preliminary negotiations ahead a U.N.-brokered dialogue set to take place next month.
The National Oil Corporation said it lifted the force majeure imposed at the southwestern Sharara oil field after it reached “an honor agreement” with forces loyal to military commander Khalifa Hifter to end “all obstructions” at the field.
The corporation’s announcement comes three weeks after Hifter, who was behind a year-long military attempt to capture the capital, Tripoli, announced an end to a blockade of the nation’s vital oil fields.
The Sep. 18 breakthrough was the result of a so-called “Libyan-Libyan dialogue” led by Ahmed Matiq, the rival Tripoli government’s deputy prime minister, seeking to create a new mechanism to distribute the country’s petrodollars more equitably.
Libya’s oil production had reached at least 1.2 million barrels a day before powerful eastern tribes loyal to Hifter first seized control of the oil facilities in January, including the Sharara field, to protest what they said was the inequitable distribution of revenues.—AP
