An oil tanker has been approved to dock and load crude oil at Libya’s Zueitina port on Friday, engineers told Reuters as the rival governments in the east and west appear to be nearing a compromise in their dispute that has led to a crude production and export halt in the African OPEC producer.
The Kriti Samaria has been allowed entry to the oil export terminal of Zueitina, where she is expected to load 600,000 barrels of crude oil. The tanker is allowed to load crude from storage tanks and will be bound for Italy with the cargo, according to the engineers who spoke to Reuters.
Part of Libya’s production and exports were halted at the beginning of last week due to a political standoff over the leadership of the OPEC producer’s central bank.
Oil production at several Libyan oilfields was halted on August 27 after the rival government in the east announced a stop to all oil production and exports from Libya.
Libya, which pumps about 1.2 million bpd of oil, was plunged into a deeper political crisis earlier in August over a row about the leadership of the Central Bank of Libya, the only internationally recognized depository of Libya’s oil revenues.
The internationally recognized government in the capital city in the west, Tripoli, was trying to replace Sadiq Al-Kabir, the governor of the Central Bank of Libya. This has led to the latest controversy between the Eastern and Western governments and political factions, threatening again to reduce Libya’s oil production and exports.
This week, Libya’s feuding political factions reached an agreement on the mechanism and timelines for appointing the Central Bank Governor and Board of Directors in consultations hosted by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
Discussions under UNSMIL supervision are set to continue until September 9.
The possible end in sight to the latest threat to Libyan oil exports contributed to the oil price rout earlier this week when Brent settled nearly 5% lower on Tuesday.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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