Libyan oil production will not return to prewar levels until late next year at the earliest, with many of the country’s oil facilities having suffered heavy damage and looting during the conflict, according to the newly appointed chairman of the country’s National Oil Company.

Offering the most detailed assessment yet of the outlook for Libya’s oil output in an interview with the Financial Times, Nuri Berruien said it would be late 2012 or early 2013 before the country was again producing the 1.6m barrels a day it had before the uprising against Muammer Gaddafi.

While some production from the country’s eastern fields should begin this month, the “initial oil output will be measured in the 10,000s of barrels a day rather than in the 100,000s of b/d”, Mr Berruien said. “In 15 months we can reach the prewar level of 1.6m b/d,” he said.