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LONDON Libyan oil production is fluctuating between 950,000 barrels per day (bpd) and "close to" 1 million bpd, rising from around 935,000 bpd earlier this week, a Libyan oil source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

Production has been fluctuating mainly due to technical and power generation problems, the source said, declining to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

At near one million bpd, Libya has succeeded in beating a production target the National Oil Corp (NOC) announced recently by a month, the source added.

The source said that production should stabilize at the higher end of the range "very soon".

Also on Thursday, oil began to be pumped from storage tanks at Al-Majid field, which has been closed for eight months because of power problems, said Omran al-Zwai, a spokesman for Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOCO), an NOC subsidiary that operates the field.

The field, with an output of about 5,000 bpd, is expected to reopen fully on Saturday, Zwai said. Oil from Al-Majid is pumped to Zueitina, one of three eastern terminals that was blockaded until September last year.

Libya, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, has been exempted from OPEC-led supply cuts as it tries revive its battered oil industry.

It had produced more than 1.6 million bpd before a 2011 uprising, and average production has not exceeded 1 million bpd since July 2013.

(Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar and Ayman al-Warfalli, editing by David Evans and editing by John Stonestreet)

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Libya's oil output nears 1 million bpd, highest in four years: source - Reuters