The recent success of rebel forces against Gadhafi is likely to mean Libya will be producing more crude than initially expected by end 2012, says Goldman Sachs. It had originally forecast production would average 250,000 b/d next year, but now sees a greater possibility that production could reach 585,000b/d by end 2012. 
Extra oil would push back timing of the bank's projected drawdown of OPEC spare capacity by about 3 months. However, GS says even should political and security conditions allow, Libyan exports are likely to be limited to at most 600,000 b/d in the short to medium-term, just half of the 1.3 million b/d the country was exporting before violence broke out in February.