Libya's oil production drops to 655,000 bpd, weather and storage blamed - NOC

LONDON (Reuters) - Libya's oil production has dropped to 655,000 barrels a day due to difficulties including a lack of storage capacity and poor weather, the head of the National Oil Corporation said on Saturday. NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla told Reuters production had been more than 700,000 bpd over the past week, but then "unfortunately decreased due to bad weather and short storage capacities, as well as some technical problems in some fields". A deputy leader of the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli had put production at 750,000 bpd on Friday. [nL5N1F353M] Libya's production has been rising after a two-year blockade on a western pipeline connected to Sharara field was lifted last month, but remains well below the 1.6 million bpd the OPEC member was producing before its 2011 uprising. A tanker that was loading the first shipment of Sharara crude from Zawiya terminal for more than two years on Friday had been postponed because of weather conditions. (Reporting by Libby George; Writing by Aidan Lewis)