Libya’s El Feel oilfield halted as pipeline diverted after Sharara fire

Libya’s El Feel oilfield has been shut down since March 19 after its pipeline was repurposed to transport crude from the Sharara field following fire damage, Reuters reported on March 23, citing engineers at the site.

The engineers said flows from Sharara were redirected through El Feel’s pipeline to the Mellitah port, then transported via the Hamada pipeline to storage tanks in Zawiya. A Sharara field engineer indicated that output routed through the alternative oil pipeline currently ranges between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels per day.

El Feel, which typically produces between 80,000 and 90,000 barrels per day, is operated by Mellitah Oil & Gas, a joint venture between Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Italy’s Eni (BIT: ENI).

Production at El Feel is expected to resume within one to ten days, according to one of the engineers.

Sharara, one of Libya’s largest oilfields, has a production capacity of 300,000 to 320,000 barrels per day and is linked to the Zawiya refinery, which has a capacity of 120,000 barrels per day. The field is operated by Akakus Oil Operations, a joint venture involving the NOC and international partners including Repsol (BME: REP), TotalEnergies (EPA: TTE), OMV (VIE: OMV) and Equinor (OSE: EQNR).

Libya’s oil production has been disrupted repeatedly since 2011 by political instability and technical challenges. The country’s primary oilfields, such as Sharara and El Feel, are frequently shut down as rival eastern and western factions use oil production as leverage in disputes over control of the central bank and revenue distribution. These systemic disruptions, often triggered by "force majeure" declarations, cause production to swing violently between 1.5mn and less than 500,000 barrels per day.