On Saturday, Liberian-flagged oil tanker EPISKOPI docked at the east Libyan port of Zueitina to load 600,000 barrels of crude oil to Italy, according to port officials.
They added that this is the first cargo of crude oil since the restarting of oil output after an eight-month closure.
Two weeks into an easing of a blockade by eastern forces on Libya’s oil infrastructure, the OPEC member is seeing a ramp up in oil production, which has risen nearly three-fold to hit 270,000 barrels per day this week.
As of Monday, Libya’s oil terminals at Hariga, Brega, and Zueitina are open for business and welcoming tankers to ship oil, although the biggest port and terminal typically exporting oil from the largest oilfield in the country are still under force majeure.
The oilfields that supply the crude for the Hariga, Brega, and Zueitina oil terminals are now producing 150,000 bpd more than they did before the blockade was lifted, two sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg. Tankers are arriving to those three oil ports to load oil and they will make room for more oil from the fields feeding the three terminals. The oilfields are set to further boost their production, Bloomberg’s sources said.
On 18 September, the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, announced it had reached an agreement to resume oil production, with the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA). This deal was brokered by GNA Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeq.
Exports have resumed, and some fields have begun pumping again. The NOC has said it will take a considerable time to restore output to pre-blockade levels, due to damage to the fields. A week after the blockade was lifted, Libya was producing around 250,000 bpd as of Sunday.