By Libya Herald reporters.
Benghazi and Tunis, 15 June 2017:
The Beida government of Abdullah Al-Thinni has instructed the Beida-based parallel National Oil Corporation (NOC) to shut down Tobruk’s Hariga oil export terminal from which international oil trader Glencore is lifting crude.
Glencore has fallen foul of the House of Representatives (HoR) and the Thinni government because the nine percent stake in the company held by the Qatari Investment Authority. Qatar has been accused of foster Islamic militants in Libya and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. The parliament has followed the lead of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt in breaking off relations with the emirate.
In November 2015 Glencore signed a long-term deal with Tripoli NOC headed by Mustafa Sanalla in to take 160,000 bpd from the Sarir and Messla field operated by NOC subsidiary AGOCO. Before the Revolution much of this production had been piped to the refinery at Ras Lanuf.
Earlier today Reuters was reporting that staff at the AGOCO-run terminal had not yet received any changes to their loading allocation instructions.
Two days ago Sanalla warned about any interruption of existing contracts or blockades of the eastern oil export terminals. He also condemned any attempt by the parallel NOC headed by Naji Maghrabi to sell oil independently of Tripoli NOC which is recognised by the international community as well as the markets as being the sole vendor of Libyan oil and gas. There are as yet unverified reports that Beida NOC is in the course of selling a cargo of crude to a little known Saudi trading company.
The tanker Morning Glory was the only time that someone other than Tripoli NOC sought to export a cargo. Petroleum Facilities Guard commander Ibrahim Jadhran’s attempt ended when the chartered North Korean vessel was intercepted by US warships and forced to take its cargo back to Libya and unload it at Zawia.
A year ago it looked as if the two NOCs were reuniting after an agreement between Sanalla and Maghrabi when they met in the Turkish capital Ankara.
On Tuesday when he issued his warning about any eastern blockade of exports, Sanalla praised the LNA for its wisdom in last year handing back to Tripoli NOC the control of the four Oil Crescent export terminals which it had just wrested from Jadhran’s PFG .
