Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. said Friday that it received approval from the Libyan government to resume operations after a 19-year hiatus from the North African country.

Occidental has title to 130,000 square kilometers in Libya’s Sirte Basin that the company says can produce 12,000 to 15,000 barrels of oil per day. Occidental was forced to suspend pumping operations in Libya in 1986 after the Reagan administration imposed an embargo on companies doing business in Libya because of suspicions that Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffi was sponsoring terrorism.

Last year, relations between the two countries thawed after Qadaffi publicly renounced support for terrorism and selling weapons of mass destruction. In January, Occidental won the right to develop nine of 15 oil exploration blocks put up for auction by the Libyan government.