Escalating conflicts in Libya are thwarting a revival of oil output from Africa's largest crude reserves after a yearlong blockade of eastern ports, just as Societe Generale SA and Barclays PLC predict rising demand.
Brent crude futures have been trading as if supplies would be ample.
Societe General and Barclays are among the banks predicting the discounts won't last, with accelerating global growth driving global oil demand by more than Libya produced in any year since 1979 .
Production in Libya reached 1.7 million barrels a day in 2008 and was almost 1.6 million before Gadhafi's death in 2011 .
Earlier this year, Libya became the smallest supplier in the Organization of Petroleum Countries and shipped 300,000 barrels a day in June, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Libya's oil is similar to the Brent crude from the North Sea that is a European benchmark.
Shipments of Brent, Forties, Oseberg and Ekofisk crudes, the grades that make up the physical price of Brent, will drop to a 14-month low of about 755,000 barrels a day next month, according to loading programs obtained by Bloomberg.
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