Libya is producing roughly 440,000 bpd of crude oil, the chairman of the country’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) said, Reuters reported.

Tripoli-based NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanallah gave the figures at the Libya Oil and Gas Forum in London, and according to Finantial Times, he added the OPEC member was “working very hard” to increase output by a further 200,000 b/d in the next two months. Libya has ambitions to raise output to 1m b/d.

Production remains limited by civil unrest and the closure of two major oil export ports that have been shut since December due to protests over jobs or oil pipeline blockades by armed groups.

The NOC has been working to reopen the ports, but the disputes, along with a conflict between Libya’s two rival governments, have kept the country’s oil output has been well below the 1.6 million bpd it produced before the 2011 fall of leader Muammar Gaddafi.

“We lost our production…Others took advantage,” said Mr Sanallah who said despite ongoing security issues they were striving to supply existing customers in the Middle East and North Africa as well as attract new buyers in Asia.