Libyan oil optimism waning

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ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, April 4 (UPI) -- Libya is struggling to maintain its post-war pace of oil production in large part because of funding constraints, an oil executive said.

Most of Libya's oil production was shuttered by civil war and a NATO-led military intervention last year. Oil production rebounded from 782,000 barrels per day in December to 1.18 million bpd by February, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reported last month.

Nabil Alalawi, chief executive at Abu Dhabi oil-field services company AlMansoori Specialized Engineering, told Emirati newspaper The National that optimism was waning.

"I am not as enthusiastic about Libya as when (Moammar) Gadhafi went away," he said. "It is a fantastic market but they don't have money."

Gadhafi, who had led Libya since 1979, died in October after falling into rebel hands.

The interim Transitional National Council has yet to revisit contracts with foreign oil companies and provide revenue to the national oil company.

A TNC official in charge of oil and natural gas, Muhammad al-Muntasir, was quoted as saying the interim government "left all long-term decisions" to a future elected government.

Libyan oil production before the war reached 1.6 million bpd.