Spain 's Repsol YPF SA (REP) Thursday said it is managing to maintain production at its Libyan oilfields at around 50% capacity--despite violent clashes in the North African country--but still expects earnings this year to suffer a knock-on effect.

Speaking at a press conference after the company unveiled fourth-quarter earnings, Chairman Antonio Brufau said the fields where Repsol has stakes are currently pumping some 160,000 barrels a day, compared with over 300,000 barrels a day previously.

Brufau said reduced production in Libya , which accounts for 3.8% of Repsol's output, is likely to have an effect on earnings this year. Repsol operates fields jointly with France 's Total SA (TOT) and Austria 's OMV AG (OMV.VI), as well as Libya 's state-owned oil company. Just over 10% of the production in those fields corresponds to Repsol.

He also said the situation on the ground remains confused, as Spanish personnel are being quickly repatriated, and the fields are left to be operated mostly by Libyan staff. The Libyan staff, he added, appear to report to the current Libyan regime, headed by Col. Moammar Gadhafi, rather than Gadhafi's opponents now seeking to overthrow the regime.

"It's difficult to talk to Libya these days," Brufau said. "There is confusion, no question about it."

Earlier Thursday, Repsol said fourth-quarter net profit, excluding inventory effects, more than doubled on higher refining margins and soaring oil prices.

Replacement-cost-adjusted net profit, the figure most closely watched by analysts, rose to EUR499 million from EUR241 million a year earlier. That is slightly above the EUR488.7 million consensus estimate from a FactSet poll of analysts.

Replacement-cost-adjusted net profit, or clean replacement cost of supplies, strips out volatile swings in the value of inventories. Repsol's unadjusted net profit in the quarter--including extraordinary gains on the sale of a 40% stake in Repsol's Brazilian unit to China Petrochemical Corp. (SNP), or Sinopec--was EUR2.91 billion, compared with EUR211 million a year earlier.

Repsol's refining margins soared in the quarter, to $2.9 a barrel from zero in the same period the year before and $1.5 in the third quarter, on wider spreads in light and heavy oil and medium distillates. For the whole of 2010, refining margins almost doubled to $2.5 a barrel from $1.3 a barrel.

The company also benefited from higher international oil prices, with both Brent and WTI oil above $85 a barrel on average during the quarter, from just over $74 in the fourth quarter of 2009--which resulted in a 16% increase in oil realisation price for Repsol.

In a research note, the analysts of BPI said Repsol's numbers confirm the company's operating rebound in recent quarters, and should result in coming upgrades in consensus estimates. BPI rates at buy, with a EUR24.85 target.

At 1255 GMT, Repsol shares were up 0.6% at EUR23.65, outperforming Spain 's IBEX-35 blue-chip index, down 0.4% at the time.

Replacement-cost-adjusted operating profit in the quarter rose to EUR1.06 billion from EUR750 million a year earlier.

The company's overall oil and gas output dropped 2.3% to 341,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, mainly due to production stoppages in the Shenzi field in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

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