Libya offers first oil from Ras Lanuf Port since reopening

Libya’s National Oil Corporation has issued a tender to sell 1 million barrels of Amna crude oil from its major eastern Ras Lanuf oil port, a tender document dated July 16 showed . The tender for loading July 27-29 is a first attempt to resume oil sales from the port, which had been blockaded by an eastern federalist group for nearly a year. It closes on July 17.

 The Es Sider and Ras Lanuf ports, the country’s largest and third-largest export facilities with combined capacity of 560, 000 barrels per day (bpd), were reopened two weeks ago after a government deal with the rebels. 

 The reopening of the two terminals, which ends a yearlong blockade that helped decimate the nation’s supplies, would increase Libya’s crude export capacity almost five-fold.

 Crude oil production in the country increased from 150,000 bpd in May to 270,000 in June. Libyan oil output, which had risen to 588,000 bpd even as militia groups continued to fight among themselves for control of Tripoli’s international airport in the country’s worst violence in months, is expected to continue to rise as more oil fields resume production.  

Libya, which holds Africa’s largest oil reserves, exported around 1.2 million bpd prior to the civil unrest that followed the ousting of Muammar Gadhafi in 2011. 

The north African country, whose crude exports collapsed last year amid protests and political feuding, is seeking to revive shipments in a way that avoids oil-market disruption, its governor for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said recently.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, slid about 3.3 percent since the rebels said the terminals would restart.

“Our return to the market will be gradual and in coordination with our fellow member countries,” Samir Kamal, the nation’s governor for OPEC reportedly said. Libya will take the same gradual approach toward sales of oil it has stored at the two terminals, he said.

Crude surged last year when the protesters halted four Libyan ports in an attempt to change how the country’s oil wealth is distributed. Two of those terminals resumed earlier this year.

Energy companies with a significant presence in Libya include Total, Statoil, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil, Hess, Occidental Petroleum and Repsol.

FEMI ASU