Libyan Government Denies Gasoline Shortage

The Libyan government recognized by the UN has told Libyans not to panic and queue at gasoline stations in the country because there is enough supply of fuel, Libya Herald reported on Monday.

In recent days, people have been queuing at gasoline stations due to rumors about shortages, but the country’s Interior Ministry said that a fuel tanker carrying 35 million liters of fuel had recently arrived at the port of Tripoli. Fuel supplies to gasoline stations across Libya have already started, and the stations will work around the clock, the ministry added, as carried by Libya Herald.

Brega Oil Marketing Company said this weekend that the Anwar Africa tanker had arrived at the port of Tripoli, according to The Libya Observer. The fuel marketing company said that there was sufficient supply of both gasoline and diesel and that people shouldn’t pay attention to rumors about an imminent shortage of fuel.

Rumors about a fuel crunch come just as Libya had managed to restore its crude oil production back to the levels last seen in January this year, before the eight-month-long blockade of the ports and oilfields.

Libya’s crude oil production has already returned to 1.25 million bpd, the level the OPEC member exempted from the OPEC+ cuts was pumping before the port blockade in January. 

The faster-than-expected increase in Libyan oil production is giving OPEC and its allies in the OPEC+ group another issue to discuss at their monthly meetings that will be held starting in January, on top of the outlook for oil demand early next year. OPEC’s crude output jumped in November by 750,000 bpd, with Libya accounting for most of that increase, according to the monthly Reuters survey.

Earlier this month, Libya’s UN-recognized government said that an urgent meeting of all stakeholders involved had agreed to work toward unfreezing Libya’s oil revenues, an essential part of the OPEC member’s budget income.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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