Libya has restarted oil exploration and increased oil production to 1.4 million barrels a day (b/d), just 200,000 b/d short of its pre-war output.

Natural gas has also increased to 2.3 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d), according to state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC).

Seismic surveys have resumed at the concessions of Benghazi-based Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco), an NOC subsidiary. The local Arab Company for Geophysical Survey (Agesco) began seismic survey operations on 25 February at the NC4 concession in the Ghadames basin in western Libya.

“A second division will start implementing an exploration programme at concessions 44-47-51-80 in Sirte basin by the end of March,” says NOC in a statement on its website.

Agoco is the operator of the Hamada and Al-Hamra fields in the Ghadames basin, as well as the Sarir, Nafoora and Messla fields in the central Sirte basin. The company was the first oil firm to fall into the hands of the National Transitional Council (NTC) during the 2011 conflict. It began resuming oil production for export in late August 2011.