Libya won't freeze oil production: Country's envoy to OPEC

Tripoli (IINA) – Libyan Envoy to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Mohamed Oun said Saturday that Libya won’t freeze its crude-oil output along with other big petroleum-dependent countries until it claws back its Gadhafi-era production level, as the North African country seeks to jump-start exports as security improves, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Most of Libya’s oil-exporting ports recently changed hands in a violent conflict a week ago and are now under the control of a militia leader who Libyan oil officials say is willing to allow the country’s petroleum to flow freely again.
Libyan oil officials have since embarked on a plan to increase output to up to 1 million barrels a day by the end of the year, from the current 300,000 barrels a day, said the country's envoy to OPEC, a 14-nation cartel that controls over a third of the world’s oil production.
Oun also reiterated Libya’s opposition to joining a so-called production freeze that OPEC members and Russia plan to discuss at an energy conference in Algeria beginning on September 26. He said Libya wouldn’t consider freezing its production until its output reached 1.6 million barrels a day, its level before 2011.