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By Sami Zaptia.
London, 25 March 2020:
Libya’s state National Oil Corporation (NOC) reported that February 2020 hydrocarbon revenues were approximately US$ 555 million, a decrease of around $1.21billion USD (68.6%) on January 2020 revenues. The February figure is also a decrease of around US$ 708 million (56%) compared with February last year. It called for an immediate end to the costly oil blockade.
It confirmed that oil and gas production in Libya have been consistently down, with current levels of production at 95,837 barrels a day, as of Sunday March 22, 2020. Forced restriction of production has resulted in financial losses exceeding 3,535,802,366 USD since January 17, 2020.
NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said “February shows a major decrease in revenues as a result of the illegal blockade of numerous oil and gas facilities. This is a devastating, irreversible loss to the Libyan economy and people. With less funds coming into the country Libya’s people are more at risk of suffering due to the further degradation of public services and facilities. The last time our monthly revenue hit this low was in September 2016.
We can still see some revenue for previous sales that came through in February, but we expect this number to keep dropping sharply as long as this blockade continues.”
On Monday, the NOC said it is continuing to work hard to serve all Libyans in every part of the country with fuels. It said that despite hardships and the illegal shut-down of many oil production and distribution facilities, it is still able to source and distribute enough fuels for all Libyans. This includes the Eastern region, where NOC has sent approximately 700 thousand tonnes of fuels since the start of January. It added that it had spent over US$ 300 million since the start of the blockade to purchase and transport fuels into Eastern Libya. This includes approximately 20 legitimate shipments of fuel imports just for the Eastern region since the start of the blockade.
A diesel tanker finished discharging at the Benghazi port today March 23, 2020; while another gasoline tanker arrived at the port Monday. The city of Tobruk and the rest of the Eastern region are being supplied by NOC directly from Benghazi.
Tripoli storage depots and some of the surrounding areas and Southern regions are suffering from a lack of supplies due to the deteriorating security conditions. The city of Tripoli is supplied with hydrocarbons directly from the Tripoli port
The NOC went on to call on those responsible for the illegal closures to immediately lift the imposed blockade and spare oil sector workers and citizens from more suffering. We call on the rest of the state’s bodies to maintain the remaining financial reserves and reduce their expenses as well.
With regards to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, the NOC said it is taking action to protect staff from the virus. Many staff are now working remotely, and all NOC venues are following new safety procedures that comply to guidance from the Libya National Center for Disease Control. Health and Safety teams in all NOC subsidiaries are now fully trained to deal with the situation, it added.
