Libyan Crude Exports Rise Sharply

Libyan crude exports reached about 550,000 barrels per day last week, a three-fold increase on the previous week, according to data from analytics firm Kpler and a shipping agent.

Tankers carrying crude including Flavin, Pacific Pearl, Ghibli, and Delta Atlantica set sail to European destinations from various Libyan ports in the week starting Sept. 9, the data show.

This comes as the OPEC producer remains in the throes of a political stand-off that has hampered its oil production.

The standoff began last month when western Libyan factions moved to oust central bank governor Sadiq al-Kabir, prompting eastern factions to declare a shutdown to all oil output.

Kabir hopes to be reinstated as governor through U.N.-backed negotiations between the House of Representatives parliament in eastern Libya and the High State Council based in Tripoli in the west to resolve the crisis.

The country's National Oil Corporation, which manages Libya's fossil fuel resources, has not declared force majeure on all port loadings and has so far opted to use the measure on individual cargoes.

It declared force majeure on all crude production at El Feel oilfield on Sept. 2 and on exports from the Sharara field on Aug. 7, before the crisis over the central bank began.

The corporation said on Aug. 28 that oil production had dropped by more than half from typical levels to about 590,000 bpd, but has not made public any new production figures since.

(Reuters - Additional reporting by Yousef Saba; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Christina Fincher)