Libya Oilfield Halt Raises Crude Prices

Libya’s oil exports from the Mellitah terminal will be modified after protests disrupted production at the key El-Feel deposit for the first time in two months, putting the OPEC nation’s crude production at risk of a decline again.

Crude loadings at Mellitah, the export terminal for El-Feel, will be modified after force majeure was declared on deliveries from the deposit on Feb. 23, the state-run National Oil Corporation said, Bloomberg reported.

NOC said on Saturday guards at the field were protesting over pay and other benefits. Force majeure is a legal clause protecting a party from liability if it cannot fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control.

Production at El-Feel, operated by a joint venture of NOC and Italy’s Eni SpA, was last disrupted for one day in December due to a power outage.

The field has a production capacity of 90,000 barrels a day but it’s not clear what output was before the outage. NOC officials were not immediately available to comment.

Libya, a member of OPEC, was allowed to increase oil production while other nations in the group cut output to curb a global glut. The North African nation’s output earlier this month was 1.1 million barrels a day, the highest since June 2013, a person familiar said on Feb. 15.