Libya unrest stops some oil output, firms move staff

FRANKFURT/LONDON (Reuters) - Spreading unrest in Libya shut down 6 percent of oil output in Africa's No.3 producer and prompted a number of energy firms to pull out international staff, sending oil prices above $105 a barrel.

Wintershall, the oil and gas exploration arm of BASF said on Monday it was winding down Libyan oil production of as much as 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). Other companies, including Royal Dutch Shell , ENI and OMV said they were withdrawing expatriate staff.

The firms acted as dozens were reported killed in Tripoli as anti-government protests reached the capital for the first time and Benghazi, Libya's second city, appeared to have slipped out of control of forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

Brent crude rose above $105 a barrel to a 2-1/2 year high on the unrest in Libya, whose oil exports mostly flow to Europe. The OPEC member pumps 1.6 million bpd of oil, making it Africa's third-largest producer after Nigeria and Angola.

"The market is on edge about the potential for Middle East and North Africa supply disruptions," said Mike Wittner, Head of Commodities Research, Americas, at Societe Generale.

"If you've got reports that actual disruptions are starting to occur, it's going to have a supportive impact. A lot of it is high-quality crude and that is important as well."

Libya's oil is priced against European benchmark Brent crude, which traded as high as $105.47 on Monday, the highest since September 2008.

Oil industry and shipping sources said there was no sign of disruption to export flows from Libyan ports.

Most of Libya's oil production operations are located in the east of the country south of Benghazi.

MOVING OUT STAFF

Wintershall was the only company initially to disclose an impact on oil output, but several others said they were stopping other work or pulling staff out of Libya.

Britain's BP , which does not produce oil or gas in Libya but has been readying an onshore rig to start drilling in the west of the country, has suspended operations, a spokesman said, adding BP has about 40 staff in the country.

"We, like everyone, are watching this very very carefully. We have operations there which are very very limited, it's the early stages of exploration," BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley said.

Shell, whose operations in Libya are also limited to exploration, has temporarily relocated the dependents of expatriate staff outside the country, a spokesman said, declining to comment further on operations.

Austrian oil and gas group OMV said none of its operations in Libya have been affected but that it was withdrawing expatriate staff, as did French oil company Total.

Norways's Statoil , which participates in land-based oil production and exploration activities in the Mabruk field and in the Murzuk basin with Spain's Repsol , has closed its office in Tripoli and "a handful" of its foreign workers are leaving the country, a Statoil spokesman said.

Oil production from the isolated Murzuq oil field in the desert in the south of the country continues as normal, a spokesman for Repsol said on Monday.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert in Frankfurt; Daniel Fineren, Emma Farge, Sarah Young and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London, Svetlana Kovalyova in Milan, Wojciech Moskwa in Oslo; writing by Alex Lawler; editing by Anthony Barker)

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