Azerbaijan Offers to Build Refinery, Filling Stations in Libya

Azerbaijan has proposed building an oil refinery and gasoline filling stations in Libya, the Azeri Foreign Ministry said in an e-mailed statement today.

Azerbaijan could build the refinery on its own or with Libya, Azeri Ambassador Agasalim Shukurov said at a meeting with Abdulrahman Ben Yezza, Libya’s oil and gas minister, according to the statement. State Oil Co. (ATPG) of Azerbaijan, known as Socar, is building a refinery in Turkey’s Izmir region. It also has filling stations in Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Georgia.

By Zulfugar Agayev from Bloomberg 

Libyan oil minister says output about 1.5 mln bpd

Libyan oil production has climbed to about 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) and the North African country hopes to reach pre-conflict levels by mid-year, Oil Minister Abdulrahman Ben Yazza told a news conference on Monday.

"We have reached 85 percent (of pre-conflict levels)," Ben Yazza told the Oil & Gas Libya 2012 conference. "We hope to reach our target by the middle of this year."

Libya produced 1.6 million bpd before last year's uprising, which led to the ouster and killing of leader Muammar Gaddafi, brought flows to a virtual standstill.

Libya this week hosts its first oil and gas conference since the end of last year's war. (Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Ali Shuaib; editing by Jason Neely)

Source: Reuters