By Seraj Essul.
Tripoli, 20 August 2014:
The first oil exports for almost exactly one year are to leave the . . .[restrict]eastern oil terminal of Sidra following the arrival of an oil tanker at the port yesterday.
NOC spokesman Mohamed Al-Harrari told the Libya Herald that 600,000 barrels of crude were being loaded aboard the Italian tanker Maria Bottiglieri which is due to transport the fuel to Italy. He added that loading began at 10 am this morning after the ship docked at Sidra yesterday evening.
Another ship was shown by marine traffic sites as travelling towards Sidra, the Liberian-flagged SC Sara, expected to arrive today.
Harrari said national production stood at 562,000 barrels per day, a modest increase on figures of 535,000 released last week. In 2012, production reached as high as 1.5 million b/d. However, despite current security conditions, there has been considerable progress made in the last month, particularly with the reopening of eastern oil ports such as Sidra.
The reopening of the ports came at the end of an eight-month stand-off between forces of the eastern autonomy movement, the Cyrenaica Political Bureau led by Ibrahim Jadhran, and the government. Jadhran’s forces closed Sidra Port in August last year.
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