Oil exports from the al-Sedra and Ras Lanouf terminals, which had been planned to begin last week, have been delayed by one month, Libyan government spokesperson Ahmed al-Amine said here Thursday.
He said the ports would be handed back to the Libyan government in a month’s time by the armed groups that seized and controlled them for several months.
“The oil ports of al-Sedra and Ras Lanouf will start their oil export operations in a month” after they are handed back, Mr al-Amine told a news conference in the capital city of Tripoli.
Under the agreement signed with the armed groups, oil exports from the two ports were scheduled to start last week.
That has now been rescheduled to start in a month’s time apparently to allow the implementation of certain clauses in the agreement.
The oil terminals of Zueitina and al-Harriga (East), also seized for several months by armed groups, had reopened on 6 April after the signing of a six-point agreement.
The port of al-Harriga is already operating, with the loading last week of about 900,000 barrels of crude oil bound for the Italian market.
The port of Zueitina has not yet resumed operations because of some technical procedures, the government spokesperson.
The Libyan National Oil Company (NOC) on Wednesday announced that the country’s oil production is now estimated at 220,000 barrels/day.
NOC said that the oil fields of al-Charara (340,000 barrels/day), al-Fil (100,000 b/day) and al-Wafa (70,000 b/day) are still being held by several groups.
Despite the positive signals on oil production in Libya, industry analysts said it would take some time before Africa’s fourth oil producer, with reserves estimated at 47 billion barrels of oil, returns to its normal 1.5 million barrels/day production.
