Libya's El Feel oilfield in shutdown since Thursday, engineers say

OMV Aktiengesellschaft

23/03/2026 12:30

BENGHAZI, March 23 (Reuters) - Libya's El Feel oilfield has been in shutdown since Thursday after state oil company National Oil Corporation (NOC) used its pipeline to transport crude from the Sharara field after its pipeline was damaged by fire, two El Feel engineers said on Monday.

Sharara oil flows were redirected via the El Feel pipeline to Mellitah port and through the Hamada pipeline to storage tanks in Zawiya, the engineers said.

Pumping capacity from Sharara via the alternative pipelines is between 80,000 to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd), said an engineer from Sharara oilfield.

El Feel, which has capacity between 80,000 and 90,000 bpd under normal circumstances, is operated by Mellitah Oil and Gas, a joint venture between NOC and Italy's Eni ENI.MI.

Production at El Feel is expected to resume in a week to 10 days, one of the engineers said.

Sharara is one of Libya's ​largest oil production areas with capacity of between 300,000 and ​320,000 bpd. The field is linked to the country's 120,000 bpd Zawiya ‌refinery about 40 km (25 miles) west of capital Tripoli.

The field is operated by a joint venture of NOC, via Acacus ⁠oil company, with Repsol REP.MC, TotalEnergies TTEF.PA, OMV OMVV.VI and Equinor EQNR.OL.

Libyan oil output has been subject to ⁠repeated closures for various political and technical reasons since the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.

(Reporting by Ayman al-Werfali
Writing by Ahmed Elumami
Editing by David Goodman)

((ahmed.elumami@thomsonreuters.com; @AhmedElumai;))