2020.01.2009:10:00UTC+00Oil Prices Rise After Libyan Shutdowns

Oil prices rose on Monday after two large crude production bases in Libya began shutting down amid a military blockade, potentially reducing national output to a fraction of its normal level.

Benchmark Brent crude rose by 0.7 percent to $65.29 a barrel, after having earlier reached $66.00 a barrel, the highest since Jan. 9. West Texas Intermediate futures were up 0.55 percent at $58.90 a barrel.

Libya's eastern warlord kept the nation's oil fields shut, in a show of defiance after world leaders failed to persuade him to sign a peace deal ending a five-year civil war.

Libya's oil output plunged to the lowest level since August 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

If exports are halted for any sustained period, tanks for storage will fill within days and production will slow to 72,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to a spokesman for the state-run National Oil Corp (NOC). That is down from more than 1.2 million barrels per day on Saturday.