Another oilfield in Libya stopped nearly all output on Wednesday as shutdowns at the country's oil-producing facilities continue over a political standoff over the leadership of the OPEC producer's central bank.
On Wednesday, the Sarir oilfield halted almost all production of about 209,000 barrels per day (bpd), engineers told Reuters.
According to the field engineers, this was the daily production rate at Sarir before the field began reducing output.
Oil production at several Libyan oilfields was halted on Tuesday after the rival government in the east announced on Monday a stop to all oil production and exports from OPEC's African producer.
Libya, which pumps about 1.2 million bpd of oil, was plunged into a deeper political crisis earlier this month over a row about the leadership of the Central Bank of Libya, the only internationally recognized depository of Libya's oil revenues.
The Benghazi-based government in eastern Libya, which is a rival to the Tripoli-based government in the politically divided North African OPEC producer, said on Monday it would shut down all crude oil output and exports.
The east-based government backed by military leader Khalifa Haftar is not internationally recognized, but Haftar and his people control most of the country's oilfields.
Over the past weeks, the situation in Libya has deteriorated with the east-west rivalry flaring up again and centered on the leadership of the Central Bank of Libya-the guardian of Libya's wealth and income from oil exports.
The internationally recognized government in the capital city in the west, Tripoli, is trying to replace Sadiq Al-Kabir, the governor of the Central Bank of Libya. This has led to the latest controversy between the eastern and western governments and political factions, threatening again to reduce Libya's oil production and exports.
Despite the spreading closures at Libyan oilfields, oil prices fell early on Wednesday by about 1.8% amid continued concerns about global oil demand.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More