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has dropped by at least 35% in the month-long stand-off between and which forced several production facilities across the country to close in mid-April, according to �Ǿ���-���������.���dz�.��

Amid protests, armed attacks and blockades, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) declared a at al-Sharara and el-Feel oil fields last month, alongside other major sites.��

has caused crude oil production to drop to its lowest point since the coronavirus pandemic hit Libyan energy producers hard in 2020.��

Only this Thursday, armed protesters opened fire at Hariga port, attempting to stop a British tanker leave the quayside in Tobruk with 1 million barrels of crude oil bound for the UK.��

“Yesterday, we received a tanker to ship one million barrels of crude, which will leave for Britain this afternoon. The tanker was not exposed to fire,” port controller Rajab Shahnoon said in a statement following the attack.

followed the selection in February of a new prime minister, Fathi Bashagha, by Libya's eastern-based parliament in a direct challenge to Tripoli-based interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah.

Analysts say eastern Libyan forces who back Bashagha have forced the closure of the oil facilities in a bid to press Dbeibah to step down, but the incumbent insists he will only hand power to an elected successor.

The latest blockade started after the NOC agreed to transfer $8 billion in oil revenues to Dbeibah's government, angering Bashagha and his allies.��

"Production has fallen by about 600,000 barrels a day," Oil and Gas Minister Mohammed Aoun said in an interview with AFP at his office in Tripoli during the early days of the oil blockade.��

At the time, Aoun estimated that the blockade was costing the Libyan economy $60 million per day.

Libya's reduced output also comes as global oil prices remain under pressure since Russia, an OPEC+ producer, invaded Ukraine in February.

Libya has been mired in conflict for long stretches since longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and killed in a NATO-backed uprising in 2011, with rival factions often fighting for control of Africa’s largest oil reserves.��
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