Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced on Tuesday that it is gradually reducing production from the Sharara field, one of Libya’s largest oil fields, citing force majeure due to ongoing protests in the area.
Production at the field is still reaching 200,000 barrels as of Tuesday, according to two field engineers. The field has a capacity of about 300,000 barrels per day. Located in southwestern Libya, Sharara is operated by a joint venture of the state National Oil Corporation (NOC) with Spain’s Repsol, France’s TotalEnergies, Austria’s OMV, and Norway’s Equinor.
In a statement, NOC attributed the gradual reduction in output to “force majeure circumstances resulting from a sit-in of the gathering of the Fezan movement.” Sharara was previously shut down by protests in January, one of many disruptions to Libya’s oil output in the decade of chaos following the NATO-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Since the country’s division in 2014, Libya has had separate administrations in the east and west, leading to frequent protests and disruptions at its oil fields.
