Libya is currently producing nearly 400,000 barrels of crude a day
Tankers to load 2m barrels of oil in eastern Libya
BENGHAZI, August 10, 2015
Three tankers will load almost 2 million barrels of crude oil at the eastern Libyan ports of Hariga and Brega this week, officials said, as the country struggles to resume former export levels after years of conflict and unrest.
A tanker docked at Hariga to load 700,000 barrels, one official said. A second tanker had loaded 600,000 barrels at Brega, while a third would load 600,000 barrels this week, also at Brega, a second official said.
But the Es Sider, Ras Lanuf and Zueitina export terminals, also located in the east, remained closed because connected pipelines have been blocked by protests or insecurity, part of turmoil hitting the sector since an uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
In Brega, a tanker importing 10,000 tonnes of petrol coming from Italy, docked to supply the local market, said a port source. This was the first fuel import to Brega for years, he said.
Libya is currently producing nearly 400,000 barrels of crude a day, the oil minister in one of the country's rival governments which controls Tripoli told Reuters.
Mashallah Zwai also said that power cuts in the country had not affected oil output. Authorities shut down Libya's biggest steel firm this week due to electricity shortages after fighting and lack of spare parts disrupted the power grid.
Libya's oil output had been previously put by industry sources at between 400,000 bpd and 450,000 bpd. This is a quarter of what Libya used to pump before an uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Since then the oil and gas industry has been hit by strikes, protests, fighting between rival armed groups and locals making political and financial demands.
More than half of Libya's output comes from the eastern state oil firm Agoco, a subsidiary of the national oil firm NOC. It runs the Hariga port and the Sarir field, the country's biggest.
Agoco had last put its production at 220,000 bpd, below the previously reported range of 250,000 and 290,000 bpd which explains the slight dip in national output.
The internationally recognised government fled to the east a year ago after an armed faction seized Tripoli and set up its rival administration.
The eastern government has failed to persuade foreign oil customers to pay though a new eastern state oil firm as they continue to deal with the established entity based in Tripoli. --Reuters
