Sirte Oil Co. (SOC) has doubled production to 100,000 barrels per day, following work to increase well productivity.
National Oil Corp. (NOC) chairman Mustafa Sanalla expressed his gratitude to SOC. The improvement came “despite the reduction of the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) to the budgets needed by the NOC to run the sector, the low level of services, the scarcity of financial resources, and the suspension of training programmes”, he said.
SOC’s workers “have withstood and performed an extraordinary job, and their only motivation was high patriotism and their love for their homeland and their affiliation with the oil sector”, Sanalla said.
The NOC subsidiary had been producing an average of 55,000 bpd before the blockade, imposed in January.
SOC had achieved the increase through a workover on 24 wells and the installation of electric submersible pumps. The company had also implemented a new development programme at the El Harach reservoir, in South Zelten. This work involved rig-less well intervention, acidisation and hydraulic fracturing.
SOC recovered the cost of the work within less than 30 days, the statement said. Schlumberger has been working with SOC.
A statement from SOC said output should continue to rise as it links more wells, with more pumps.
Threats made
While Libya’s oil sector is recovering from the stoppage that ran for most of the year, difficulties remain. The blockade cost the country an estimated $11 billion.
NOC reported on December 17 that the company had been threatened with a car bomb. NOC said the same group had been involved on the failed attack on its headquarters on November 23.
The state-owned company also reported an armed group had made threats against Brega Petroleum Marketing Co. The company said it had filed reports against this group, and various individuals, on suspicious oil deals.
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) issued a statement condemning threats against NOC and the Brega unit. “The NOC is and must remain a unified, independent, and apolitical institution that works for the benefit of all Libyans,” it said. People acting against the company may be in violation of UN resolutions and “could be subject to sanctions”.