• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 23 mins GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 1 hour How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 3 hours If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 4 days Oil Stocks, Market Direction, Bitcoin, Minerals, Gold, Silver - Technical Trading <--- Chris Vermeulen & Gareth Soloway weigh in
  • 5 days The European Union is exceptional in its political divide. Examples are apparent in Hungary, Slovakia, Sweden, Netherlands, Belarus, Ireland, etc.
  • 16 hours Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
  • 4 days "What’s In Store For Europe In 2023?" By the CIA (aka RFE/RL as a ruse to deceive readers)
Irina Slav

Irina Slav

Irina is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing on the oil and gas industry.

More Info

Premium Content

Who Gets Control Of Libya’s Oil As The Guns Go Silent?

The Libyan National Oil Corporation expects to soon regain control over the Es Sider and Ras Lanuf oil terminals, which were the point of clashes between the Libyan National Army and the Benghazi Defense Brigades that ended last week with the LNA taking the ports back from the BDB.

Although there was doubt as to whether the LNA would be willing to pass control over the ports to the NOC again, the company’s chairman told Reuters there is no reason to doubt. Doubts are likely to remain, however, as last week saw developments that may lead to the split of the NOC along government/parliament lines.

The LNA is loyal to the Tobruk-based House of Representatives, the Libyan parliament, which opposes the UN-backed Government of National Accord. The GNA, together with Libya’s central bank, controls the oil export revenues from the four ports in the Oil Crescent.

When the LNA first took control of the ports, wresting it from the Petroleum Facilities Guard, it passed it on to NOC immediately and exports were soon resumed, albeit tentatively, with crude oil production also growing, to 700,000 bpd just before the latest clashes.

Until last summer, NOC was divided into two factions, one affiliated with the government and the other one with the parliament, but its senior officials decided to seek unification so oil revenues could start flowing in again. Related: Can Iran Continue Playing Nicely With OPEC?

Last week, however, the head of NOC’s Benghazi office, who was appointed by the HoR, announced he no longer wanted to take part in the unification deal, signed last July. In addition to this statement, Reuters at the time quoted an LNA official as saying the army has not yet decided on handing control of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf to the NOC.

Signals remain mixed: NOC’s official chairman, Mustafa Sanalla, told Reuters that company officials were already working with the LNA on the handing-over of control. “We have been coordinating our assessment of the facilities with them.”

Es Sider and Ras Lanuf together have a loading capacity of 600,000 bpd.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

ADVERTISEMENT

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: 


Download The Free Oilprice App Today

Back to homepage





Leave a comment

Leave a comment




EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News