HOUSTON, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- John Kingston, global director of news operations for energy reporting group Platts, said there is "good news" coming from Libya in terms of oil production.
A Platts survey of production from members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries found Libyan oil output helped lead to a January increase from the cartel of 150,000 barrels of oil per day to 29.87 million bpd.
"The Libyan situation has a long way to go to play out but this is clearly good news," Kingston said in a statement Monday. "Steady increases in Libyan output will help the country recover and will help bring stability to a market that is getting hit by various outages around the world."
Platts said Libyan oil production more than doubled from December to 530,000 bpd in January. Production resumed from the al-Sharara field last month. Field production was stifled for part of last year after armed groups forced the closure of an export pipeline.
Libyan oil production before civil war erupted in 2011 was about 1.6 million bpd. It recovered to about 1.4 million bpd in early 2013 but has struggled to reach the 1 million bpd because of simmering conflict in recent months.
OPEC's monthly market report for February is due out Wednesday.
