Libyan oil production gaining momentum

Libyan oil production is coming on stream faster than expected with prewar production levels anticipated by the end of next year, an energy official said. The International Energy Agency states that oil made up nearly all of Libya's export earnings in 2010. Oil production since the war began in March, however, had slumped to around 350,000 barrels per day, far shy of its estimated prewar output of more than 1.3 million bpd. "Our production has reached 600,000 bpd of which 140,000 bpd go to [local] refineries," Nuri Berouin, the head of Libya's National Oil Corp., was quoted by the BBC as saying. Another 200,000 bpd was expected online by the end of 2011, he added. With international military operations in Libya over and a new interim government in place, international energy companies like ENI have slowly restarted oil production in one of Africa's key energy states. Much of the country's energy infrastructure was damaged by the war, however, and Berouin said repairs could cost "hundreds of millions of dollars."