Libya's National Oil Corporation will export oil cargo stored at the Es Sider port during the first week of November, according to a new report by S&P Global Platts on Thursday.
An anonymous source from the NOC said the cargo will be the first to be lifted from the port since December 2014, when a force majeure was declared at the site.
The eastern Waha fields, which produce 50,000 barrels per day, recently restarted operations. The area's pipelines feed the oil terminals at the Es Sider and Ras Lanuf ports.
A source said that the NOC has planned to lift a cargo of crude stored at Es Sider from the Ras Lanuf port at the end of October.
"We hear it's an end of October-loading NOC cargo, and as far we know, they've not found a buyer yet," a crude trader said.
Es Sider has weathered fire damage over the past five years due to the effects of the civil war following the execution of dictator Muanmar Ghaddafi. This makes loading from the site impossible until repairs are complete.
"There is maintenance work going on but how much, it's hard to say. There is no lifting plan yet - but Es Sider could be lifted from both ports," a crude trader familiar with the situation said. With a combined capacity of 560,000 barrels per day, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf represent the largest and third-largest ports in Libya, respectively.
A Seadelta tanker bound for Italy left the port of Ras Lanuf late last month, making it the first export cargo of crude oil to depart Libya since 2014, an oil exports coordinator at the port told AFP at the time. The shipment totaled 776,000 barrels.
By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com
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Zainab Calcuttawala is an American journalist based in Morocco. She completed her undergraduate coursework at the University of Texas at Austin (Hook’em) and reports on… More