On Sunday, the crude oil tanker ‘Neoces Therasis’ docked at the eastern Libyan port of Zueitina. The tanker is due to load 600,000 barrels of crude oil for export to Italy, according to port officials.
At Zueitina, three tankers are expected to load oil at ‘Bu Attifel’, over the next ten days. The customers are Austria’s OMV, Spain’s Repsol, and Italian refinery Saras, according to a local shipping agent.
Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced on Sunday that it would resume production at the country’s largest oil field, El-Sharara. This comes amid peace talks between rival officials from eastern and western Libya. These are part of preliminary negotiations ahead of a UN-brokered dialogue set to take place next month.
The NOC said it lifted the force majeure imposed on El-Sharara, after reaching “an honour agreement” with the Petroleum Facilities Guard aligned with the Libyan National Army (LNA), thus ensuring that no “obstructions” would occur at the field.
El-Sharara will have initial production of 40,000 barrels per day, when it comes back online. Total Libyan output is expected to reach 355,000 bpd, on Monday.
On 18 September, the LNA, 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 fields have begun pumping again. However, the NOC has said it will take a considerable time to restore output to pre-blockade levels, due to damage to the fields. Last year, before the blockade, Libyan oil production had reached 1.2m bpd.