Libya's Sirte Oil Company Completes Maintenance and Restores Operation of Two Methanol Plants

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 25, Libya's National Oil Corporation announced that the two methanol production units of its subsidiary Sirte Oil Company have fully resumed operation after completing comprehensive maintenance, with a combined design capacity of 2,000 tons per day. The resumption involved maintenance of key equipment and control system upgrades for the methanol units, with the second unit completing a control system replacement. Masoud Sulaiman, Chairman of the National Oil Corporation, confirmed the resumption progress.

The first methanol unit had previously undergone extensive equipment maintenance. According to the National Oil Corporation's 2025 annual technical report, the unit completed its annual comprehensive overhaul, including replacement of reformer tubes and catalyst and installation of a new distributed control system (DCS). Following the related infrastructure upgrades, Sirte Oil Company announced on May 12, 2026 that the first unit had been restarted and methanol production resumed.

The restoration of the second methanol unit involved natural gas heating facilities and electrical systems. The unit had been out of service for more than seven years, and Sirte Oil Company announced on March 31, 2025 that production had been restarted after the installation and testing of the natural gas heater was completed. The 2025 annual technical report also documented cable replacement work for the second unit. The latest announcement on October 25 confirmed the completion of its control system upgrade and that it had entered full operation alongside the first unit.

While restoring methanol production, Sirte Oil Company also carried out modifications to supporting systems of its chemical facilities. In May 2026, the company completed the connection of the second nitrogen generation unit at the petrochemical power facility to a modernized DCS system and restored its operation. The nitrogen generation facility and the methanol production units are both industrial facilities of Sirte Oil Company, but the scope of work covered by this methanol resumption announcement centers on the maintenance and control system upgrades of the two methanol units.