More than one-third of Libya’s oil production has come back on line in recent days after a striking militia opened the valves on a critical pipeline between two major western oil fields and Mediterranean port terminals outside the capital, Tripoli.

Protests and strikes by militant groups that overthrew the Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi reduced Libya’s oil production to 10 percent of its capacity in recent weeks, pushing up global oil prices and threatening to make Prime Minister Ali Zeidan’s weak interim government look impotent.

Libyan oil executives said it was not clear whether the lifting of the strike by the Zintan tribal militia was the result of a negotiated settlement with the government or simply a short-term expression of good will or a negotiating tactic. The parliament recently voted to increase the salaries of civil servants, which include oil facility guards, and government officials have threatened to arrest strike leaders.

With the pipeline open, a critical source of oil is flowing again to the global market. But no resolution appears near to the more intractable strikes at export terminals and oil fields on the eastern side of the country, where the remaining two-thirds of the nation’s oil production is based.