Libya’s political crisis threatens to return the OPEC member’s oil production to the chaos that plagued the country for years after the fall of dictator Moammar Al Qaddafi.
The North African nation’s crude output was halved last week as authorities in the east shut more than 500,000 barrels a day in a battle with the Tripoli-based government for control of the central bank. All of the country’s eastern export terminals were closed on Thursday.
The disruption could reach 1 million barrels a day, consultants Rapidan Energy Group said. That would amount to about 1% of global supplies. It would also represent a major rupture in a 2021 political settlement brokered by the United Nations to reconcile the two rival camps.
