The on and off again protests and strikes at Libya’s oil ports have led to the country being unable to schedule crude deliveries. NOC, the state-run firm, said in a statement that it could not provide loading schedules for September delivery.
NOC chairman, Nuri Berruien, told Reuters the September schedules “will be modified, not cancelled…because of the current sit-ins at ports and fields.”
Estimates put exports as low as 300,000 bpd, taking an estimated 1 million bpd of Libyan crude off the world market.
“Due to continuation of strikes in some Libyan terminals (Ras Lanuf, Es Sider, Zueitina, Marsa al-Hariga) … we are not able to allocate any quantity of crude oil exports from those terminals during September 2013,” the NOC statement said.
Deputy oil minister Omar Shakmak estimates current oil production at 700,000 bpd, but many analysts have knocked a few hundred thousand off that estimate.
Shakmak reported that Es Sider port could be exporting once again as workers and local authorities reached an agreement to end the strike. “They decided to resume operations, (Es Sider) can be considered open.”
“There is still no resumption at Ras Lanuf, but if Es Sider restarts maybe Ras Lanuf will follow,” he said.
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