Feras Bosalum News

Libya has persuaded a foreign shipper to send a tanker to the eastern port of Derna for the first time since a warplane belonging to the official government bombed a Greek-operated tanker there in January, its state oil firm (NOC) said. Foreigner shippers have generally stayed away from Derna, a hotbed for Islamist militants, since a jet killed two foreign seamen while attacking their tanker docked there. On Monday and Tuesday, warplanes belonging to the internationally recognised government again targeted militant positions in Derna, though apparently not hitting the port. The violence is part of a wider struggle in Libya where two governments, armed groups and Islamist militants are fighting each other four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.

It is too early to say when Libyan oil ports Es Sider and Ras Lanuf can reopen after a force loyal to a self-declared Tripoli government pulled out troops from frontlines near to the terminals, an oil official said on Monday. Security and technical checks needed to be conducted first, the official said, asking not to be named.   Reporting by Feras Bosalum

A Libyan navy ship docked at Benghazi port was hit during heavy fighting on Monday between the army and Islamist fighters in Libya's second-largest city, residents said. A Reuters reporter could see smoke rising from the port area, to which the army had earlier moved heavy guns to attack positions of Islamist fighters. A security source said the ship was sinking but this could not immediately be confirmed. (Reporting by Feras Bosalum and Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Heavy fighting broke out near the seaport of Libya's eastern Benghazi city on Monday as the army, backed by forces loyal to a former general, attacked Islamist groups, residents said. Dozens of residents were leaving the city, heeding a call by the army to evacuate the port area where military officials say Islamists are holed up after more than two weeks of fighting. A Reuters reporter saw the army deploying tanks and artillery in Libya's second-largest city. Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli and Feras Bosalum

Libyan oil ports and fields are safe and under government control, the country's interior minister said on Friday after visting the eastern Brega port. "This visit is a message to the world and Libya that the Libyan state is controlling the oilfelds and ports," Omar Sanaki told Reuters after the visit with several lawmakers. Brega was the site of a recent oil protest.   Reporting by Feras Bosalum

A second tanker is waiting to load oil at Libya's Es Sider port, state-run National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Thursday, as the country's biggest crude export terminal swung back into action after being closed for a year. The OPEC member's oil production has risen in the past few weeks as major ports in the east have resumed work under a deal with a group of federalist rebels, adding to a crude market that is already well supplied. A first tanker has been loading oil at Es Sider since Wednesday but a second had already arrived, NOC spokesman Mohamed El Harari said. Technical problems and mistrust between the rebels campaigning for regional autonomy and the government had delayed implementing an oil port deal but output has risen to 562,000 barrels per day (bpd), NOC said on Tuesday.

A second tanker is waiting to load oil at Libya's Es Sider port, state-run National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Thursday, as the country's biggest crude export terminal swung back into action after being closed for a year. The OPEC member's oil production has risen in the past few weeks as major ports in the east have resumed work under a deal with a group of federalist rebels, adding to a crude market that is already well supplied. A first tanker has been loading oil at Es Sider since Wednesday but a second had already arrived, NOC spokesman Mohamed El Harari said. Technical problems and mistrust between the rebels campaigning for regional autonomy and the government had delayed implementing an oil port deal but output has risen to 562,000 barrels per day (bpd), NOC said on Tuesday.

Libya is due to start loading its first crude oil tanker in a year from top port Es Sider on Tuesday following a year-long blockade by eastern federalists, a Libyan oil official and trading sources said. Germany's Wintershall has also resumed production for the 220,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Ras Lanuf oil export terminal for the first time since protests ended in July, Ibrahim al-Awami, general manager of inspections and measurement at the oil ministry, told Reuters. A spokesman for Libya's National Oil Corp. said the country's total oil production had risen to 562,000 bpd, up from 535,000 bpd at the weekend. (Reporting by Julia Payne in London, Ulf Laessing in Tripoli and Feras Bosalum in Benghazi; editing by Jason Neely)

Libya state oil company National Oil Corp (NOC) has reached a deal with security guards to end a protest at eastern Brega oil port, which is expected to allow the terminal to reopen on Tuesday, a company spokesman said. Reopening Brega would allow the state-run Sirte Oil Company to start producing again and further boost Libya's output after an end to other port and oilfield protests. Late last week, the NOC said production was around 555,000 barrels per day. (Reporting by Feras Bosalum; writing by Patrick Markey, editing by David Evans)

Rebels occupying major oil ports in eastern Libya said on Wednesday they would boycott Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeq and keep two major export terminals shut for now, a blow to efforts to restore vital oil exports. The rebels even warned they would take action if Tripoli did not fulfil its part of a recent agreement to reopen the oil ports, a veiled threat to close the terminals again. "Nothing has been implemented," said Abd-Rabbo al-Barassi, self-declared prime minister of the rebel movement. He accused the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists in parliament of undermining the agreement and trying to take over the ports. The struggle over energy wealth is part of growing turmoil in the North African country three years after the overthrow of dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Libya's eastern Zueitina oil port will receive late on Thursday its first tanker of crude since reopening after nearly ten months due to protests, state-run National Oil Corp (NOC) said. The tanker would load one million barrels of crude, NOC spokesman Mohammed El Harari said. According to shipping sources, Austria's OMV had chartered the Ottoman Tenacity. A second tanker would load crude on May 5 and a third one after that, Harari said. NOC lifted force majeure on the port on April 28 following a recent deal with federalist protesters to reopen the smallest two of four blocked eastern ports. (Reporting by Feras Bosalum; Writing by Ulf Laessing)

Libya's eastern oil port of Zueitina, which had been occupied by rebels as part of an eight-month oil blockade, will reopen after damage at its facilities has been assessed, the country's justice minister said on Sunday. Salah al-Merghani also told reporters in the eastern city of Benghazi that a committee to investigate oil corruption had been formed, as agreed under a deal between the government and rebels to end a blockade of eastern oil ports. The reopening of four oil export terminal has been delayed with the rebels accusing the government of not fulfilling all parts of the deal, such as paying financial compensation. Under the…

Technical problems have delayed the reopening of Libya's eastern Zueitina oil export terminal after the government reached a deal with rebels to end an eight-month blockade of the port, a minister said on Sunday. Two weeks ago, the Tripoli government reached an agreement with rebels in the restive east to end their occupation of four oil ports which had halted vital exports. Under the plan, the Hariga and Zueitina ports were due to open immediately while the larger Ras Lanuf and Es Sider terminals would resume oil exports within a month. But justice minister Salah al-Merghani said Hariga port located in Tobruk in the far east would be the only one to start operations due to technical problems at Zueitina.

Libya's eastern Zueitina oil port was still not under government control one week after an agreement with a federalist rebel group to immediately reopen it along with the Hariga terminal, a spokesman for National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Monday.   The spokesman said that NOC was still waiting for confirmation from the government-run Petroleum Facilities Guard that they were able to establish full control over the complex.   NOC was able to lift force majeure on Hariga last week and a tanker is due to load crude there this week. The federalist rebels are still in control of the country's two largest terminals.   (Reporting by Feras Bosalum, Writing by Julia Payne. Editing by Jane Merriman)

Sunday. these in the next few hours. Sunday. these in the next few hours.

Libya's western Zawiya oil terminal has been closed by protesters preventing some oil product tankers from discharging, a government statement said on Friday. Local citizens demonstrating against the General National Council, the country's parliament, have blocked the entrance to the port preventing oil workers from entering. The connecting oilfield El Sharara and the pipeline itself have been blocked by other protest groups since March. (Reporting by Feras Bosalum, Writing by Julia Payne. Editing by Jane Merriman)

Libya's coastguard has detained more than 400 immigrants, mostly from the Horn of Africa, in its waters in the past two days as they tried to illegally cross to Europe in small boats, Libyan officials said on Thursday. The coastguard picked up five boatloads of people. Warning shots were fired at several vessels, and 78 people were rescued from a sinking ship, said navy spokesman Qassem Ayoub. Most of those taken into custody came from Somalia and Eritrea, and a handful were from Ghana and Nigeria. Some are held at a Tripoli police station and are being examined by a United Nations medical team, said the deputy commander of naval operations, Mohammed al Baty. More than 400 people were detained in all, Ayoub said.

Libyan government forces on Monday seized a tanker that had loaded crude at a port under the control of rebels who plan to sell oil independently of the Tripoli government, state-owned National Oil Corp (NOC) said. The North Korea-flagged shipped was being escorted to western Libya, NOC spokesman Mohammed El-Harari told Reuters, confirming Libyan media reports. Lawmaker Abdelwahab al-Qaim told Reuters: "The ship has been seized by government forces. There are no damages to the ship." A rebel spokesman had earlier denied they had lost control of the ship. (Reporting by Ulf Laessing and Feras Bosalum; Editing by Anthony Barker)

A North Korean-flagged tanker has finished loading crude at the Libyan rebel-controlled port of Es Sider but has not yet left the terminal, Libyan oil officials said on Monday. Libya's government has threatened to bomb the Morning Glory should the tanker try sailing off with crude from the eastern port, one of three seized by armed protesters demanding a share of oil revenues and political autonomy. "The tanker has finished loading but is still anchored in Es Sider," a senior oil official said.   Reporting by Ulf Laessing, Feras Bosalum and Ayman al-Warfalli