The head of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries said yesterday he expected Libya to return to full pre-war oil production levels by mid-2012.

The war-wrecked North African nation will return to its pre-war production level “at the end of the second quarter” next year, Secretary General Abdullah El-Badri said at the World Petroleum Congress in Doha.

Tripoli has said that it expects to reach its pre-conflict output level by the end of 2012.

“The production is coming very fast and has surprised almost everybody,” said El-Badri.

“By the end of the second quarter of next year Libya will produce 1.58 million barrels per day,” he said.

Last month, Libya’s National Oil Corporation said the country has boosted its oil crude production to 600,000 barrels per day and is expected to add another 200,000 bpd before the end of the year.

Estimates indicate that some 10 per cent of the OPEC country’s oil infrastructure was severely damaged during the eight-month rebellion against toppled leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was captured and killed in October.

Spain’s oil company Repsol said on Tuesday its resumed production in Libya has reached around 200,000 barrels a day, representing around 60 per cent of its pre-war production of 340,000 bpd.

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