Chief of Libya's oil firm NOC to outline plans at Opec meeting

Sanalla 'hopes to present a unified Libyan position in St Petersburg'

A view of the Sharara oilfield in Libya. Pumping from the country's biggest oil field was temporarily disrupted. Ismail Zitouny/Reuters
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The head of Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Tuesday he would lead a Libyan delegation to a meeting of Opec and non-Opec oil producers in St Petersburg, Russia on July 22 to share his country's production plans.

The NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla will share with a technical committee "the factors enabling and constraining Libya's production recovery", he said.

"I will consult with significant Libyan decision-makers before I leave and hope to present a unified Libyan position in St Petersburg that will show we can act together in the national interest," Mr Sanalla said.

The technical committee involving six Opec and non-Opec members is due to convene before ministers from the countries hold talks in the Russian city on July 24.

Opec members Libya and Nigeria have boosted production since they were exempted from an Opec-led deal to cut output, weighing on global prices.

That prompted talk among producers about including them in the pact, although Kuwait's Opec governor Haitham Al Ghais said at the weekend it would be premature to cap Libyan and Nigerian production.

Mr Sanalla has said Libya's political, humanitarian and economic problems must be considered in any discussion about limiting the country's output.

Libya's oil production is fluctuating at just over 1 million barrels per day, still well under the 1.6 million bpd the North African country was producing before its 2011 uprising.