Libya’s crude oil production has increased by more than 70 percent since August, to 450,000 barrels per day, as several oil fields resumed output and the port of Ras Lanuf reopened for the first time since 2014.
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Libyas national army took control of the four strategic oil terminals on 11 September in lighting attack and turned them over to the National Oil Corporation which immediately began to prepare for oil exports. In an email interview, Matthew Reed, the vice president of Foreign Reports, Inc., a Washington-based consulting firm focused on Middle East politics and world oil markets, discusses Libya’s oil industry. “This is the first shipment of oil from Ras Lanuf port since November 2014”, said Omran el-Fitouri, oil exports coordinator at the port. Libya holds Africa’s largest oil reserves and pumped 1.6 million barrels of crude a day before Qaddafi’s ouster.
Libya’s official news agency says the country has resumed oil exports from a terminal seized by troops loyal to the internationally-recognized parliament, which is at odds with the United Nations -backed government.
The fighting had forced the Maltese-flagged Seadelta to turn back out to sea for safety.
According to an official at Harouge Oil Operations, the oil tanker Seadelta left the port of Ras Lanuf overnight Tuesday as quoted by Bloomberg.
The latest shipment could also help ease a cash crisis for Libya’s strapped banks which are in dire need of hard currency.
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This was further complicated by the formation of a UN-backed government earlier this year. This militia was until recently loyal to the Presidency Council of the Government of National Unity and courted by the UN Libya Envoy Martin Kobler.
