BRUSSELS, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Plans by Libya to increase oil production and exports to the global market are a welcome step toward stability, a multilateral statement read.
Two tankers with a combined 1.3 million barrels of oil left Libya ports this week after Western-backed Libyan authorities took brief control over oil terminals.
Early this week, the Libyan National Oil Co. called for the resumption of pipeline transit from oil fields in southwest Libya, saying the stoppage of oil has led to a financial loss for the country of more than $27 billion.
A joint statement from more than a dozen countries, the European Union, the United Nations, the League of Arab States, and the African Union called for proactive steps to end the violence in Libya for the sake of post-civil war reconstruction.
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There was multilateral support for the rule of law in Libya, which the signatories said could only be achieved if the country is united.
"We welcome the recent transfer of the oil facilities in the oil crescent to the NOC as well as the plans to increase oil production and exports," the joint statement read.
NOC Mustafa Sanalla said this week the resumption of ports that have been shuttered for years by conflict shows efforts to undermine unified progress in Libya is at a dead end.
By his estimates, if security lasts, oil production can recover to around 600,000 barrels per day within a month, to 900,000 bpd by the end of the year and return to pre-war levels of around 1.2 million bpd within 12 months.
Libya's political environment fractured in the wake of civil war in 2011, with factions establishing authority from opposite sides of the country
Libyan oil production declined nearly 7 percent from July to August and is more than 70 percent less than peak levels before the outbreak of civil war.
