Zawiya News

The head of Libya's state oil firm warned on Monday that if the international community tolerates a blockade on the country's oil industry it would be complicit in ending the rule of law in the country.The 10-day old blockade is the most extensive for years, shutting down fields and ports in the east and south of Libya and causing production to plunge to 262,000 barrels per day (bpd) from around 1.2 million.Production has gradually been falling since the blockade began as storage capacity in Libya's ports fills up, forcing Libya's National Oil Corp (NOC) to shut in production upstream.NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said that at the Ras Lanuf port only 30% of storage capacity was operational…

A Libyan coastguard commander sanctioned by the United Nations for alleged human trafficking and migrant smuggling said he hits migrants but does so for their own safety to prevent them from capsizing.Abdalrahman al-Milad, who heads a coastguard unit in Zawiya, just west of Tripoli, was one of six people sanctioned for involvement in people trafficking or smuggling in Libya on June 7, in the first move of its kind.The sanctions freeze bank accounts of those listed and ban them from travelling internationally…

Sicilian police on Wednesday sought the arrest of nine people, including a suspected mobster, for running a Libyan fuel-smuggling ring in which at least 30 million euros ($35 million) of diesel was sold in gas stations in Italy and Europe. A Libyan, nicknamed the "boss", used small boats to steal fuel from a refinery in Zawiya, a port city west of Tripoli, a statement from the finance police said. The fuel, stolen from Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC), was then transferred to a larger ship off the coast of Malta and brought to Italy. Police from the Sicilian city of Catania "documented in detail 30 voyages in which more than 80 million kilos of diesel fuel was imported," the statement said.

Libya's coastguard rescued an estimated 278 migrants including women and children on Monday off the shores of two different towns west of the capital Tripoli, a spokesman said. The coastal towns to the west of Tripoli - Zawiya, Sabratha, and Zuwarah - are common departure points for migrants trying to reach Europe, often sent out by smugglers in flimsy vessels. The coastguard near Zawiya refinery rescued 128 people about 23 km (14 miles) off the coast and another 150 were rescued off Sabratha, the spokesman of Libyan naval forces Ayoub Qaseed told Reuters. The migrants were mostly from sub-Saharan African countries, though there was also one from Bangladesh and two from Egypt.

The U.N. Security Council has extended sanctions on illegal oil exports from Libya to cover refined petroleum products as well, in a bid to stem rampant smuggling of subsidised fuel by sea. Imported fuel that is priced lower for the domestic market is commonly smuggled by ship from western Libya to Malta, Italy and Turkey, and by land to Tunisia, according to U.N. investigators who earlier this month recommended an extension of the sanctions. Entrenched and powerful smuggling networks have been trading fuel for years, and it is unclear to what extent the resolution can be enforced. The new resolution, approved late on Thursday, is designed to make explicit that fuel smuggling is illegal…

Four suspected migrant smugglers were killed in an exchange of fire with the Libyan coastguard off western Libya on Thursday, spokesman Ayoub Qassem said. Qassem said the clash started when the coastguards tried to apprehend heavily armed gunmen whose boat was located near a migrant vessel close to the city of Zawiya, about 45 km (28 miles) west of Tripoli. "The coastguard boat detected the gunmen's boat by radar during a patrol," Qassem told Reuters. "The gunmen were asked to stop but they refused to follow the rules, which means most likely they were smugglers of illegal migrants. They opened fire at the patrol. Two of the suspected smugglers were arrested and one was missing, Qassem said.

Libya's UN-backed government will declare force majeure on two ports to stop fuel smuggling from them, a statement from its presidential council said on Saturday. The statement gave no details on when the measure would come into effect, but it comes after officials accused a local armed group of fuel smuggling from Zawiya port. The measure will cover Zawiya and Zuwara ports. The armed faction guarding Zawiya port peacefully withdrew from the terminal earlier this week. Libya expects its oil production to rise to around 900,000 barrels per day after a series of agreements to reopen major oil ports and oilfields which had been closed for two years by armed factions, fighting and strikes. (Reporting by Ahmed Elumami; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Thursday that rival forces had agreed to let a tanker dock at Zueitina port to load oil and take it to a safe place. The NOC expressed concern earlier this month after reports of possible clashes between the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) and forces loyal to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar. The PFG has signed a deal to end its blockade of Zueitina and two other ports with the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, but eastern forces loyal to a separate government have threatened to block a resumption of exports. Those forces recently mobilised near Zueitina and PFG positions, though there have been no reports of violence.

A tanker that Libya's rival eastern government had been using to try to export oil in defiance of the Western-backed administration in Tripoli returned to the country on Saturday, after it was blacklisted by the United Nations, the state oil company said. The eastern government's parallel oil company had hoped to sell the cargo of 650,000 barrels, but the United Nations measure required states to ban it from entering any port. Two competing governments, one in Tripoli and one in the east, backed by armed factions have struggled for control of the North African OPEC state since 2014. The eastern administration has set up its own National Oil Corporation in parallel to the Tripoli-based NOC.

An Indian-flagged oil tanker is returning to Libya, the North African country's rival oil corporation said on Thursday, after its failed first attempt to export crude oil led to the ship being blacklisted by the United Nations Security Council. The Distya Ameya tanker is heading to the western Libyan port of Zawiya, said Nagi al-Maghrabi, chairman of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) set up by Libya's rival eastern government in parallel to the Tripoli-based NOC. The Tripoli NOC is recognized internationally as the legitimate seller of Libyan oil. The Tripoli NOC and its international backers say that if the eastern government succeeds in its long-held aim of selling oil independently…

India has instructed an Indian-flagged oil tanker that has been blacklisted by the U.N. not to discharge its cargo of crude oil from Libya's rival eastern government and to await instructions from the United Nations, a senior Indian government official said on Thursday. The tanker, the Distya Ameya, is carrying 650,000 barrels of crude on behalf of a second National Oil Corporation (NOC) set up by Libya's rival eastern government in parallel to the Tripoli-based NOC, which is recognized internationally as the legitimate seller of Libyan oil. The Tripoli NOC and its international backers say that if the eastern government succeeds in its long-held aim of selling oil independently…

A refined product tanker owned by Danish shipping company Torm rescued more than 200 migrants off the coast of Libya on Sunday and took them to Italy at the request of the Italian coastguard, the company said. The tanker picked up 222 migrants from two distressed boats off Zawiya, a coastal region west of Tripoli, and deposited them at Port Reggio Calabria, on the southern tip of mainland Italy, on Monday, the company said. Migrant rescues by commercial boats are increasingly common in Mediterranean waters as more and more people leaving the Middle East and Africa try to cross the Mediterranean to Europe this year, often on unsafe vessels. Just under 2,000 migrants have died trying to make the crossing in boats so far this year, compared to about 425 in the same period a year ago.

An oil tanker has docked at Libya's port of Hariga for the first time since security guards ended a strike this week and a storm passed, a port official said on Thursday. Authorities managed earlier this week to persuade security guards to end a strike over delayed salary payments, keeping Libya's only functional onshore oil export port open. A storm then further delayed the terminal's reopening. Greek-registered Minerva Zoe, which had been waiting to dock for a week, would start loading 725,000 barrels of oil soon, the official said, asking not to be identified. The tanker was bound for Italy. Another tanker importing 25,000 tonnes to Libya had also arrived, he said.

Two oil storage tanks remain on fire at Libya's Es Sider oil port while two others have collapsed almost a week after clashes there sparked the blaze, a spokesman for state National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Tuesday. Fires at two other storage tanks at Libya's biggest oil port had been extinguished but the damage was unclear, NOC spokesman Mohamed El Harari said. An industry source said at least 1.2 million barrels of oil had been destroyed by the fire which broke out after clashes reported on Dec. 25 between armed factions allied to Libya's internationally recognised government and a group called Libya Dawn which is vying for control of the country.

Libya's oil output has shrunk back further after blazing oil tanks at a major terminal helped world oil prices higher and burnt a bigger hole in its dollar currency reserves. It is surviving on a mere 128,000 barrels per day from fields connected to the eastern port of Hariga, an oil official said on Monday, while fighting halted the major ports Es Sider and Ras Lanuf. Total oil output, adding in offshore fields, is around 350,000 bpd -- a fraction of the 1.6 million bpd it produced before the 2011 civil war. Some oil is keeping two refineries going and the official was unable to say how much, if any, was available for export. Oil tanks at Es Sider have been on fire for days after a rocket hit one of them, destroying more than two days of Libyan production, officials said on Sunday.

Hariga fields still producing but Libya's current output a fraction of pre-2011 levels. Libya is producing 128,000 barrels of oil a day from fields connected to far eastern port of Hariga, an oil official said on Monday, while fighting halts work at major ports Es Sider and Ras Lanuf. Output from the OPEC member nation remains at a fraction of the 1.6 million barrels a day it produced prior to the 2011 ouster of leader Muammar Gaddafi. Its two largest ports, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, have stopped working due to clashes between forces allied to Libya's internationally recognised government and those loyal to a rival group called Libya Dawn which seized control of Tripoli in August. Several oil storage tanks at Es Sider have been on fire for days after clashes there.

Clashes in Libya spread from Tripoli to the western town of Zawiya near Tunisia's border, where a large oil port is located, killing four people over the last two days, local town council officials said on Thursday. Foreign governments have mostly closed their embassies and evacuated staff after three weeks of clashes turned Libya's two main cities - Tripoli and Benghazi - into warzones in the worst fighting since the NATO-backed war against Muammar Gaddafi. Three years after Gaddafi's fall…

Crude output slips for first time since port deal; fresh clashes in Tripoli and Benghazi. Brega oil port seen open in few days. A twin suicide bombing at a Libyan army base in Benghazi killed at least four solders in an escalation of clashes between Islamist militants and regular forces battling to oust them from the eastern city. A first attacker blew himself up at the entrance to Benghazi's special forces headquarters, allowing a second suicide bomber to detonate his explosives at the base and kill at least four troops, a security source said. Suicide bombings are rare in Libya, where a fragile government is struggling to impose order. Tripoli and Benghazi are now caught up in some of the fiercest fighting between rival armed groups since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

Libya's navy has blocked Baku, an oil tanker allegedly chartered by Royal Asset Management, from loading crude at an eastern port that has been held for months by armed protesters demanding more autonomy from Tripoli, Reuters reported. Due to a government blockade, the transport of oil from Libya is illegal. An attempt by protesters to get oil to world markets independently would be a major escalation of the obstruction that has slashed Libya's oil exports, the Reuters report said. According to Reuters’ AIS Live ship tracking, the tanker is traveling north towards Malta after sailing around Libya since the end of December. The vessel was outside Brega port and then Zawiya before heading to Es Sider.   Sources: Reuters, staff

Kazakh CPC Blend crude strengthened on Tuesday as the outlook soured for the resumption of rival Libyan oil exports and a loading programme showed lower Azeri loadings in May. In the Platts window, oil major Total bid for CPC at dated Brent minus 50 cents, some 20 cents stronger than previous price estimates, but found no sellers, traders said. In the Urals market, Eni offered a cargo in the Baltic at dated Brent minus 75 cents, but found no buyers as the levels were considered too strong. Traders said CPC might be strengthening as the market for light barrels in Europe might be tightening. Azeri Light oil exports will decline in May to 748,000 barrels per day from 818,000 bpd in April, traders said on Tuesday, citing a loading programme.

Libya's National Oil Corp (NOC) has yet to lift force majeure at the eastern ports of Zueitina and Hariga following a deal with federalist rebels to reopen them after a nine-month blockade, an oil ministry official said on Tuesday. "Force majeure is still in place, it has not been lifted. NOC has not instructed the ports to export oil yet," Ibrahim al-Awami said. Al Awami said staff at Arabian Gulf Oil Co (AGOCO), which runs the Hariga terminal, had joined a general strike in Benghazi that began on Sunday. It was unclear whether this would affect the port's ability to resume exports. Workers at Zueitina were carrying out maintenance and checking facilities before the resumption of exports, Al Awami said.

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)

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