Libya Says Oil Production Remains Unaffected by Deadly Floods

Libya’s state oil company said there has been no disruption to crude output following a storm that unleashed deadly flooding and left at least 5,500 people dead in the North African country.

Oil-export ports in the east were unharmed by the storm and operating normally, Farhat Bengdara, chairman of the National Oil Corporation, said in an interview. Amos Hochstein, US President Joe Biden’s senior adviser for energy, had earlier said on Bloomberg Radio that there had been some curtailments following the disaster.

Libya had shut export ports in the east during the storm last weekend, and had reopened them by Tuesday. NOC said then that oil output was running at 1.2 million barrels a day. It didn’t say what level production was at on Friday. Italy’s Eni SpA said the floods hadn’t impacted its Libyan operations.

Torrential rain unleashed by Mediterranean storm Daniel collapsed two dams, which devastated the coastal city of Derna in northeast Libya. Relief workers and international organizations are still searching for survivors among collapsed buildings. 

The destruction has again brought Libya’s oil industry into focus. The country sits atop Africa’s biggest reserves, but production has been regularly disrupted over the years by armed groups. Libya has, however, been more stable since a truce in a civil war around mid-2020, with crude output holding above 1 million barrels a day for most of this year. Still, it remains divided between rival administrations.

--With assistance from Alberto Brambilla.