Libya Oil Exports Are Mostly at a Standstill

Libyan oil exports remained largely halted on Thursday, shipping data showed, but some tankers were being allowed to load crude from storage, with output still curtailed amid a political standoff over the central bank and oil revenue.

Oil tanker Kriti Samaria will be allowed to enter Libya's Zueitina port on Thursday evening or Friday to load 600,000 barrels of crude from storage and will head to Italy, engineers told Reuters. They did not give further details.

Libyan crude exports have been largely shut for more than a week amid a political showdown over control of the central bank, which is the sole legal depository for Libyan oil revenue and pays state salaries across the country.

Another tanker, the Front Jaguar, was loading crude from storage at Libya's Brega port, engineers told Reuters on Wednesday.

Libya's two legislative chambers said on Tuesday they had agreed on a mechanism for resolving the dispute over the central bank.

The crisis was triggered when western factions moved on Aug. 18 to oust veteran central bank governor Sadiq al-Kabir, who has since fled the country. Eastern factions responded by declaring a shutdown to all oil output on Aug. 26.

The National Oil Corporation, which oversees the country's oil resources, said on Aug. 28 that total oil output had dropped by more than half from typical levels to just over 590,000 bpd. It was not immediately clear where current production stood.

A member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Libya produced about 1.18 million barrels per day of crude in July, according to OPEC, citing secondary sources.

(Reuters - Reporting by Ayman Al-Werfali; writing by Yousef Saba and Nayera Abdallah; editing by David Goodman, Jason Neely and Sharon Singleton)