TRIPOLI, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Libya's oil production lost 70,000 barrels per day, as the Al-Fil oil field was closed Friday night after all guards securing the field withdrew as part of a protest.

"After failure of mediation efforts of some members of the oil installations guards, and after the withdrawal of a group of the guards yesterday and withdrawal of the rest of them today, the company was forced to stop the production operations in Al-Fil oil field," Mellitah Oil and Gas Company, which is operating the field, said in a statement.

"Thus, Libya loses 70,000 barrels (of crude oil) per day the field used to produce," said the joint venture company owned equally by Italian energy group ENI and Libya's state-run National Oil Corporation (NOC).

"A team of senior negotiators and officials of the (National Oil) Corporation asked the protesters to stay in their positions pending a final agreement, but the protesters refused," it added.

Mellitah said that the field was scheduled to be closed for maintenance in March for a week, but it was closed now due to security conditions.

The oil installations guards in southern Libya were demanding the government pay their outstanding salaries of three months.

The Al-Fil oil field is located some 900 km south of Tripoli, capital of Libya. It is one of the most important fields of ENI, which operates it with the NOC.

Libya, which has Africa's largest oil reserves, used to produce about 1.6 million barrels per day before the 2011 armed uprising that toppled and killed former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Libya's daily production of crude oil has returned to over one million barrels a day since the end of 2017, after production operations of all southern and eastern oil fields were resumed.

However, sudden closures of oil fields due to labor protests have caused Libya's oil production to fluctuate.