On Monday, Libya’s state National Oil Corporation (NOC), announced that the shutdown of oil fields and ports has caused losses of more than 9.5 billion US dollars.
The NOC stated that the blockade, which has been going on for the last 234 days, will affect the financial arrangements and salary provisions for the financial year 2020-2021.
On Friday, the NOC welcomed proposals from Parliament Speaker, Ageela Saleh, and the Prime Minister of the Government of National Accord (GNA), Fayez Al-Sarraj, to lift a seven-month oil blockade. The two also proposed placing revenues in an independent bank account, until a political solution is reached.
“The NOC also reiterated its call for all oil facilities to be freed from military occupation and to ensure the security and safety of its workers.” Once this has been done, the NOC should be able to lift the force majeure, and re-commence oil export operations. The Tripoli-based NOC also said it was undertaking “all possible efforts to provide a ship to empty the condensate tanks” in eastern Libya. This is after authorities agreed to allow a shipment of oil and gas products, to ease a power supply crisis.
The blockade was imposed by the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) in January. This reduced Libya’s oil production from around 1.2 million barrels per day, to less than 100,000.
The LNA said earlier this week, that shipments from blockaded ports would be limited to those needed to offload stored products. Production of gas needed at power stations will also be allowed.
Oil, the lifeline of Libya’s economy, has long been a key factor in the civil war as rival authorities jostle for control of oil fields, and state revenues. Libya has the ninth-largest known oil reserves in the world, and the biggest oil reserves in Africa.