Militant conflict to constrain Libya's oil resurgence

The oil recovery will continue, if the civil war and political spats allow it

Two men hold the key to whether Libya's oil recovery continues through 2019, or crashes amid worsening civil war. The first of them is Mustafa Sanallah, chief of the National Oil Corporation (NOC). Left to his own devices, Sanallah will oversee further gains in production that has jumped five-fold in two years. His deft political footwork will continue to navigate a path between the country's two warring governments, in Tripoli and Tobruk. Oil production, currently 1.3mn bl/d will inch upwards to the 1.6mn b/d mark it enjoyed prior to the 2011 revolution. Next year will also see the return of exploration, abandoned in the revolution, with Italy's Eni partnering BP in sinking rigs into giant