Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has completed the first tests after installing new gas compressors early next year, to help boost gas at its onshore Wafa gas field.

While Libya’s oil output has fluctuated wildly due to disruptions from frequent protests and security threats, its offshore gas production has been largely unaffected, so gas exports have been a reliable source of additional revenue.

“This strategic project aims to use the new compressors to compensate for the low pressure of the reservoir, and stimulate wells to produce additional quantities of gas,” NOC said in a statement.

The project is being carried out by Mellitah Oil & Gas, which is a joint venture (JV) of NOC and Italian oil major Eni.

Operating tests have been carried out on one compressor and its turbine is expected to be fired on 28 October with gas flows from 4 November. Tests and gas production from the second compressor are expected to completed by mid-November.

This will boost gas production by as much as 80 million cubic feet a day (cf/d), NOC said. Another two compressors, which will be completed in February and March next year will take gas output to more than 100 million cf/d.

Output from the onshore Wafa gas field is mixed with gas from the offshore Bouri and Bahr Essalam field at the Mellitah Gas complex, about 100 kilometres west of Tripoli. After being treated the gas is exported through the 516km Greenstream pipeline under the Mediterranean to Gela in Sicily.

Greenstream is another JV between NOC and Eni, the largest foreign investor in Libya’s oil and gas sector.

Through Mellitah Oil and Gas, the pair completed a major expansion of gas production at the offshore Sabratha platform in the Mediterranean in March this year. The project integrates gas production facilities from a new phase of development at the offshore Bahr Essalam field. It was one of only a handful of projects carried out in Libya since the revolution in 2011.

Libya earned a total of more than $15bn this year from oil, gas and petrochemicals revenues from January to September, according to the latest data released by NOC. Gas and condensates exports totalled $148.9m in August, nearly 9 per cent of the total monthly revenue of $1.567bn.