PetroChina, Total Evacuate Libya Staff

PetroChina

, China's largest oil company, and Total

, Europe's third-largest oil company, have evacuated staff from Libya, home to Africa's largest oil reserves, amid escalating political tensions in the North African nation. China National Petroleum, which explores for oil off Libya's northwestern coast, has relocated 47 of its staff and is prepared to evacuate all of its 391 employees if necessary, Bloomberg News reported, citing the company. Total started moving staff out of Libya on Tuesday and has scaled back production in the country. Estimates vary on how much output has been lost since tensions started to boil over in Libya. Barclays says 1 million barrels a day have been lost while Goldman Sachs 500,000 barrels per day have been removed from the market. LIbya, an OPEC mebmber, is Africa's third-largest oil producer behind Angola and Libya. Earlier this week, Royal Dutch Shell

and BP

, Europe's two largest oil companies, suspended production activities in Libya while Statoil

, Norway's largest oil company, removed staff from the country. On Tuesday, Italy's Eni SpA

, the Western oil major with largest Libyan presence, said some production activities had been halted in the country.