The internationally recognized government in eastern Libya will try to stop any tanker operating for Glencore Plc from loading oil at the nation’s ports if the company does business with Continue Reading
The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company’s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, September 30, 2015. Trading house Glencore has secured a deal to buy as much as half of the oil Libya is currently exporting, market sources said, as it looks to boost trading to help offset flagging profits from mining. For war-torn, cash-strapped Libya it offers steady sales to international buyers and shifts to Glencore the risks associated with loading oil and chartering vessels at ports where operations have become more unpredictable due to the conflict in the north African nation. Under the arrangement with Libya’s state-run National Oil Corp. (NOC), which began in September, Glencore loads and finds buyers for all the Sarir and Messla crude oil exported from the Marsa el-Hariga port near the country’s eastern border with Egypt. While Libyan oil exports peaked at 1.6 million barrels per day, battles […]
Libya joined the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1962, a year after Libya began exporting oil. 1 Libya holds the largest amount of proved crude oil reserves in Africa, the fifth-largest amount of proved natural gas reserves on the continent, and in past years was an important contributor to the global supply of light, sweet (low sulfur) crude oil, which Libya mostly exports to European markets. Libya’s hydrocarbon production and exports have been substantially affected by civil unrest over the past few years. In 2011, Libya’s hydrocarbon exports suffered a near-total disruption during the civil war, and the minimal and sporadic production that occurred was mostly consumed domestically. In response to the loss of Libya’s oil supplies in the summer of 2011, the International Energy Agency (IEA) coordinated a release of 60 million barrels of oil from the emergency stocks of its member countries through the […]
Photo Libyans demonstrated in Benghazi last month against a peace deal brokered by Bernardino Léon, a United Nations mediator. Credit Abdullah Doma/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images CAIRO — The United Arab Emirates was shipping weapons to favored belligerents in Libya over the summer in violation of an international arms embargo while simultaneously offering a highly paid job to the United Nations diplomat drafting a peace accord there, leaked Emirati emails show. The leaked correspondence is threatening to undermine months of Libyan talks by tarring the diplomat with an apparent conflict of interest. The emails also open a new window into the hidden and contradictory machinations of regional players like the United Arab Emirates that have helped inflame the fighting even as their diplomats say they support a peaceful solution. “The fact of the matter is that the U.A.E. violated the U.N. Security Council Resolution on Libya and continues to […]
Libya’s internationally recognized government in the east of the country asked oil companies to contact its National Oil Corp. to review loading contracts, amid a battle to snatch buyers from the rival administration in the west of the divided country. Oil companies should contact the marketing department of the NOC administration in the eastern city of Bayda by Nov. 11 to review loading contracts, according to an e-mailed statement from the elected government. The eastern government will take legal action against any company that deals with any authority other that the NOC administration in Bayda, it said. “Any contracts brokered with any other parties than the bodies authorized by the legal National Oil Corp. are considered legally null and void,” according to the statement. Libya, with Africa’s largest oil reserves, pumped about 1.6 million barrels a day of crude before a 2011 rebellion ended Muammar Qaddafi’s 42-year rule. Like […]
Libya’s oil output dropped below 400,000 barrels a day after the divided country’s internationally recognized government in the east closed a port run by a rival administration in the west, in a push to assert control over more energy assets and exports. Production fell after crude exports halted at the port of Zueitina, Mohamed Elharari, a spokesman for the National Oil Corp.’s management in the western city of Tripoli, said Wednesday by phone. Libya pumped 430,000 barrels a day in October, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Zueitina will be closed until further notice, and tankers seeking to load crude there must now register with a rival NOC management loyal to the internationally recognized government based in eastern Libya, according to a Petroleum Guard spokesman Ali al-Hasy. Vessels registered with the NOC administration in Tripoli, seat of an Islamist-backed government, are “illegitimate” and won’t be permitted to load at Zueitina, […]
Libya’s Petroleum Facilities Guard halted crude shipments from Zueitina port indefinitely amid the escalating conflict between the divided country’s two rival administrations, putting the OPEC member’s oil exports at risk. A tanker moored at Zueitina for two days has been prevented from loading, the port’s workers union president, Ramadan Lefkaih, said Tuesday by phone. Zueitina will be closed until further notice and tankers seeking to load crude at the eastern port in the future must register with the National Oil Corp. administration loyal to the internationally recognized government in the eastern region, according to Petroleum Guard spokesman Ali al-Hasy. Vessels registered with the rival NOC headquarters in Tripoli, seat of an Islamist-backed government in western Libya, are “illegitimate” and won’t be permitted to load at the port, al-Hasy said Tuesday by phone. The Tripoli-based NOC, which has been in charge at the Zueitina port, declared force majeure and said […]
Libya’s crude export capacity increased as Zueitina, an oil port in the eastern region, resumed loadings after a five-month halt due to protests, a workers union said. Zueitina began Thursday loading 600,000 barrels of crude on the Sea Faith tanker, the port’s workers union president, Ramadan Lefkaih, said by phone. The shipment, bound for Italy, is the first since May, when protesters seeking jobs at state-run National Oil Corp. shut the pipeline that supplies Zueitina with crude. The protesters agreed to reopen the export route after being promised jobs, Lefkaih said. Zueitina receives crude from fields including the NOC-operated Nafoora, Wintershall AG’s concession C96, also known as As-Sarah, and Amal, operated by Harouge Oil Operations. It has 2 million barrels in storage and its current supply rate from the fields stands at 30,000 barrels a day, said Lefkaih. It has an installed export capacity of 70,000 barrels a day, […]
CAIRO—United Nations-brokered peace talks aimed at reconciling Libya’s two rival governments teetered on the edge of collapse Monday, as the deadline for an accord passed. The talks aim to create a unified governing body and end a four-year power vacuum that has devastated the country’s economy and led to the growth of an illegal people-smuggling network that has become a focal point of the largest refugee crisis in decades. A framework deal for a national unity government including officials from the two competing administrations was to have been presented Sunday. It was unclear on Monday whether talks were still proceeding or the deadline had been extended. The U.N.’s mission in Libya didn’t comment on the lapsed deadline, and officials from rival camps couldn’t be immediately reached. Both parties have jockeyed for influence and control of Libya’s oil resources and central bank. Armed fighting between forces loyal to each side […]
MALTA—A host of energy firms have so far refused to do business with the U.N.-backed Libyan government until a peace treaty is signed, another blow to the institution’s bid to build a new National Oil Co. and tap into the country’s petroleum reserves. The government, based in Libya’s eastern city of Baida, gathered more than 30 energy firms and traders at an upmarket hotel in Malta on Wednesday. It was another bid to lure business away from the country’s long-established National Oil Co. in Tripoli, where a coalition of militias known as Libya Dawn holds power. The old National Oil Co. says it is an independent company, a view the United Nations endorses. The Dawn-led government has appointed its own oil minister, but has kept the company’s pre-war management in place. But no oil companies or traders signed on with the eastern government’s new firm, also called National Oil […]
