As some of Libya’s onshore oil fields slowly resume production, the country is poised to export a crude cargo from the Marsa el-Hariga port (in the east of the country) by the end of September.

If successful it will be the first shipment from the terminal in eight months. The Marlin Shikoku is scheduled to load  one million barrels of Sarir/Mesla crude from Marsa el-Hariga between September 24-27, according to shipping sources and Vortexa data. The cargo will likely come from storage, its destination is not yet known.

China’s Unipec (a subsidiary of Sinopec) will load the cargo. Unipec was one of only two companies that loaded Mesla/Sarir crude last year and had been set to remain the main term buyer of the grade this year.

The port (along with all other oil terminals in eastern Libya as well as onshore crude fields in the west of the country) has been intermittently blockaded by allies of Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) for the past eight months. During that time, Libyan crude exports have been mainly confined to shipments from the offshore Bouri and Al Jurf fields.

A new deal to resume oil production and exports has been struck between the LNA and the rival UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA). State-owned NOC subsequently agreed to restart activity at “safe” ports and fields where mercenaries are not present.

For more information visit www.sinopecgroup.com

22nd September 2020