Oil prices started to fall as traders anticipated the return of some production from Libya amid sweeping victories by the rebels, write Javier Blas and Simeon Kerr. But the drop was capped by fears that a full return of production in the world’s 12th largest oil exporter could take years.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell as much as $3.47 to a session low of $105.15 a barrel, dropping back towards the level it was before the start of the civil war in Libya in February. Oil prices surged to a two-year high of $127 in April due to the loss of Libyan oil, which forced the International Energy Agency to release emergency stocks for only the third time in history.

The Arabian Gulf Oil Company, a rebel-held oil group, said it was speeding up plans to produce oil from the 440,000-barrels-a-day oilfields it controls in the east of the country following several weeks of repairs. “We are accelerating plans with Gaddafi forces now in retreat,” an official at the Agoco in Benghazi told the Financial Times, adding that output could restart in two to three weeks.