Benghazi-based oil firm plans to restart two refineries

Libya’s Benghazi-based oil firm the Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOCO) said on Monday it will restart its two refineries by late September, when production begins in the linked eastern oilfields of Sarir and Mesla.

“When we have the production we can restart them. It will be end of September or slightly before,” AGOCO spokesman Abdeljalil Mayuf told Reuters.

The two refineries, located in the Sarir field and the export terminal of Tobruk, have a combined capacity of 30,000 barrels per day.

This represents a small portion of the country’s downstream capacity but the development is an important indicator that the oil sector is stirring back to life after more than six months of war in the North African country.

AGOCO, which pumped about a quarter of the OPEC member’s 1.6 million barrels per day before a revolt against Muammar Qaddafi, plans to start output at its eastern fields on September 15.

“The technicians have left already to the fields,” Mayuf said.

AGOCO was previously using the field outages to conduct maintenance work at the Tobruk refinery and this has now finished, he added.

Its two eastern oilfields were damaged by pro-Qaddafi forces in two separate attacks, killing 14 people and leading to a halt in production.