Libya Experiences More Blackouts As Oil Ports Remain Blocked

Libya's central and southern regions experienced a major power outage on Thursday, the state General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) said on Friday, while Libya's oil terminals remain blocked for exports.  

The most recent blackout comes after a series of power outages in Libya this summer, Libya Herald reports.  

Last month, Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said that the closure of oil ports in the Gulf of Sirte was the main reason for the power outages in eastern Libya.

"By closing the ports in the Gulf of Sirte, the condensate reservoirs at the export ports will be filled within days, and thus the production of the gas associated with the condensate, which feeds Zueitina power stations and north of Benghazi, will come to a halt," NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla said, as carried by The Libya Observer.

Sanalla had warned earlier that oil tanks full to the brink at Libya's oil export terminals are posing a risk to local communities and the facilities themselves.  

Meanwhile, Libya's oil terminals remain out of service, and the country is not exporting oil.

Currently, oil production in Libya is just 100,000 bpd—down from 1.2 million bpd at the start of the year, just before paramilitary formations affiliated with the Libyan National Army (LNA) of eastern Libyan strongman General Khalifa Haftar occupied Libya's oil export terminals and oilfields.  

Libya's conflict continues, preventing oil production and exports from the African OPEC member. Last week, Haftar's forces rejected the ceasefire announced two days earlier by the UN-backed government of Libya and the east-based rival administration, dismissing the proposal for truce as a "marketing" stunt.

Earlier this week, NOC's Sanalla met with Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, to discuss the effects of blockades on the Libyan economy.

"NOC chairman also stressed that the ongoing conflict in Libya has nothing to do with the distribution of oil revenues; it is rather a conflict between parties that want to control the wealth of the Libyan people," the company said.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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