Libya’s major ports have been closed to crude exports for nearly a week, and oil production has significantly decreased since authorities in eastern Libya ordered a shutdown of all oil production on August 26. This decision came in response to moves by western factions to replace the Central Bank of Libya (CBL) Governor Sadiq al-Kabir with a rival board. The tanker was allowed to load oil from storage even though exports from major Libyan ports had been halted, the engineers reported, without providing additional details.
On Tuesday, Libya's two legislative chambers announced they had reached an agreement on a mechanism to resolve the conflict over control of the CBL, which manages revenue from the country’s oil exports, the primary source of its national wealth.
At Zueitina port, crude exports were still suspended on Wednesday, but the 5,000-ton capacity tanker Gaz United was expected to arrive on Thursday to load propane, according to engineers at the port.
The ongoing dispute over the CBL has the potential to escalate and could threaten a four-year period of relative peace in Libya, which remains divided between factions in the east and west.
The National Oil Corporation (NOC), which oversees Libya's oil resources, declared force majeure at the 70,000-barrel-per-day El Feel oilfield on Monday. Output at this field had already been halted, as reported by Reuters last week.
On August 28, the NOC stated that the country’s total oil production had dropped by more than half to just over 590,000 barrels per day. The current level of production is unclear.
On Saturday, Reuters reported that Libya’s Sarir, Messla, and Nafoura oilfields had been instructed to resume production by their operator, the Arabian Gulf Oil Company, a subsidiary of the NOC. Approximately 150,000 barrels per day from Sarir and Messla were being sent to Hariga port for local use, with any excess oil being stored, according to engineers at the fields.
