By Libya Herald reporters.
Tunis, 4 April 2017:
The ending of the blockade on the pipeline carrying oil from the Sharara and El-Fil fields to the export terminal at Zawia has brought Libyan production back to around 660,000 barrels a-day. With the return of the Sharara’s 221,000 bpd, which is expected to be expanded, National Oil Corporation (NOC) chief Mustafa Sanalla’s target of a million barrels daily could now be hit by August according a corporation official.
Reopening the pipeline at Reyayna allowed NOC to end its force majeure on liftings from Zawia. There are currently two tankers at the oil port, one of which has been named by Bloomberg as the Greek Minerva Kythnos which can load over 800,000 barrels of crude. Zawia has a notional daily loading volume of 199,000 barrels and the refinery was last year taking 60,000 b/d.
However the gas pipeline from the Wafa field is still blocked near Nalut and thus NOC is keeping force majeure at its Mellitah terminal.
There are currently two tankers loading at Tobruk’s Hariga terminal but none showing off the four Oil Crescent ports, Zuetina, Brega, Ras Lanuf and Sidra.
The international oil price initially weakened with the news that the Sharara was back on stream but later hardened as the OPEC production cuts (from which OPEC-member Libya is excused) were seen to be tightening global supplies.
