Category: North Africa

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 […]

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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, […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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MALTA—Libya’s internationally recognized government may block exports via oil companies that won’t deal with its new state oil company, an official said Tuesday. The government has been trying to consolidate power since the United Nations recognized it as Libya’s rightful ruling body in the wake of a civil war that split the country last year. Based in the war-torn North African nation’s eastern city of Baida, the government has formed its own national oil company, among other institutions. But the existing Libya National Oil Co. is based in Tripoli , where a group of militias known as Libya Dawn holds power. International oil companies and traders have maintained their longtime contacts with the established National Oil Co. and shunned the new one in the east, which is also called National Oil Co. Speaking to reporters Tuesday ahead of a meeting with oil companies the next day, the chief of […]

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