Libya's NOC Talks with Tribal Elders on Closed Oilfields

Libya's state oil firm NOC is in talks with tribal elders to try to reopen oilfields closed by protests but no breakthrough has been achieved yet, a spokesman for the National Oil Corporation said on Monday.

Major oilfields such as El Sharara and El Feel in western Libya have been blocked for months by security guards or tribesmen hostile to an internationally unrecognized government controlling the capital Tripoli.

"There have been efforts by elders but no results have been reached so far to reopen the closed oilfields," NOC spokesman Mohamed El Harari said. He did not elaborate.

He also refused to give a national production figure. Industry sources and analysts have put Libya's output at between 380,000 barrels per day and 450,000 bpd but there is no transparency. Libya used to pump up to 1.6 million bpd in 2010 before leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted.

NOC's eastern subsidiary AGOCO, which runs Libya's biggest oilfield Sarir and the port of Hariga, said last week its output was 220,000 bpd, slightly less than previously reported.

Hariga is now the busiest oil port because Libya's two largest, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, have been closed due to insecurity since December.

NOC in Tripoli is reluctant to give a production figure because it tends to encourage armed factions and tribesmen to seize even more oilfields to press the state firm to hire relatives and friends or increase salaries.

Libya is split into two governments fighting for control with the help of former rebels who helped topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but now follow their own political agenda.

NOC has tried to stay out of the conflict but it is based in Tripoli where the internationally recognized government has no authority.

(Reporting by Ahmed Elumami)