Libya is considering raising its oil output to 1.6 million barrels per day next year, and 1.8 million bpd in 2027, the country’s oil minister, Khalifa Abdulsadek, said on Tuesday.

“We have a mission to increase oil output to 2 million bpd in the next five years,” the minister said at the Adipec energy conference in Abu Dhabi, adding that production is currently around 1.4 million bpd.

Abdulsadek told Reuters in January that the country needed between $3 billion and $4 billion to reach an oil production rate of 1.6 million barrels per day.

The Opec member was producing 1.6 million bpd before the Nato-backed uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

On Tuesday the minister also said Libya is working with neighbouring countries to establish the necessary infrastructure to serve as a regional energy centre.

Libya, one of Africa’s largest oil producers, has seen its output repeatedly disrupted since 2014, when the country split between rival administrations in the east and west following the 2011 uprising.

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