Libyan Government News

International Maritime Organization (IMO)  maritime security training is underway for Libyan port facility security officers, managers and designated authority officials (18-22 August).According to the UN body, the workshop, delivered in English and in Arabic, aims to assist the Libyan Government in enhanced security risk assessments and controls on maritime transport through its territory.According to a press release, fifteen officers in charge of port security from ports across the country are attending, including five from the national maritime security committee in charge of oversight the implementation of the Code in the country.Participants are being trained on how to perform their duties in line with SOLAS Chapter XI-2 (click for details)…

International Maritime Organization (IMO) maritime security training is underway for Libyan port facility security officers, managers and designated authority officials (30 April – 4 May). The workshop, delivered entirely in Arabic, aims to assist the Libyan Government in enhanced security risk assessments and controls on maritime transport through its territory. It is the first IMO maritime security workshop for Libya since the country's civil war. Twenty officers in charge of port security from ports across the country are attending, including five from the national committee in charge of oversight of compliance in the country. Participants are being trained on how to perform their duties in line with IMO’s code on International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS Code)…

The UK provided RFA Mounts Bay to support the Danish-led maritime operation, escorting a Danish transport ship through the Mediterranean as it carried the chemicals, the Defence Secretary and Foreign Secretary have announced. Libya’s chemical weapons stockpile was destroyed under international supervision in 2014. However, a quantity of chemicals which could be made into chemical weapons remained in the country. Earlier this year, the Libyan Government of National Accord requested support from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the international community in removing the remaining chemicals from Libya and destroying them safely in a third country.

EU maritime mission gains more power to seize weapons; also says moves will help break migrant smuggling gangs. The European Union on Monday gave its naval force in the Mediterranean the authority to search suspicious vessels at sea in a bid to stop arms getting to Islamic State in Libya and to break up gangs smuggling migrants to Europe. EU foreign ministers acted to boost the effectiveness of the five-frigate "Sophia" mission after winning a U.N. mandate to reinforce an arms embargo on Libya, where Islamic State is strengthening its grip, and limit the near-impunity of the people smugglers. "We must act, both against those who exploit the migrants…

NATO agreed on Thursday to broaden its operations in the Mediterranean to help the European Union stop criminals trafficking refugees from North Africa but will not act until the fate of rescued migrants is cleared up. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said a meeting of NATO foreign ministers supported the wider role as Europe struggles with failing states on its fringes and said NATO should link up with the EU's "Sophia" naval mission in the area. This could be a step towards NATO helping stabilise Libya by patrolling coastal waters to uphold a U.N. arms embargo and counter the growing presence of Islamic State, a step that would likely need U.N. Security Council support, diplomats said.

Libya's mission to the United Nations has asked the Security Council to remove from a U.N. blacklist an Indian-flagged tanker that was recently prevented from shipping oil for the rival eastern Libyan government, Libya's U.N. envoy said on Thursday. The tanker Distya Ameya was blacklisted last month after the rival eastern government's parallel oil company attempted to use it to ship a cargo of 650,000 barrels of crude. The U.N. measure requires states to ban the ship from entering any port around the world. Libyan Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told Reuters his mission had submitted an official request, though he did not know when the delisting might take effect. It will be up to the 15-nation council's Libya sanctions committee to make a decision.

The United Nations Security Council Libya sanctions committee blacklisted on Wednesday an Indian-flagged tanker carrying crude oil shipped by the rival eastern Libya government, said diplomats, which would prevent it from entering any ports. Libyan U.N. Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi wrote to the 15-member sanctions committee on Monday asking for the Distya Ameya tanker to be blacklisted, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The ship left Marsa el-Hariga port late on Monday. Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the sanctions committee chair had informed them that there were no objections to the Dabbashi's request before a 3 p.m. (1900 GMT) Wednesday deadline so the ship was added to the sanctions list.

Libya has asked the United Nations Security Council to blacklist an Indian-flagged ship that is on its way to Malta carrying crude oil shipped by the rival eastern Libya government, Libya's U.N. envoy said on Tuesday. Libyan Ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi told Reuters he had written to the Security Council sanctions committee to complain about the first shipment of oil by the rival authorities, which left the eastern Libyan port of Hariga overnight. The eastern government has set up its own National Oil Company (NOC) to act in parallel to the Tripoli-based NOC that is recognised internationally as the only legitimate seller of Libyan oil. "We mainly asked the designation of the ship," Dabbashi said. India's U.N. mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Libya plans to sell a tanker that a former rebel group used in an attempt to bypass the Libyan government and export oil on its own last year, the Tripoli-based state prosecutor said on Thursday. The group had loaded crude on the "Morning Glory" at the eastern port of Es Sider and sailed in March 2014. U.S. Navy SEALs stopped the tanker off Cyprus and returned it to Tripoli. "The office of the prosecutor general announces the sale of the Morning Glory tanker," the prosecutor said on its website, the accuracy of which was confirmed by an official at the prosecutor's office. An auction is scheduled for next Thursday. The incident typifies the chaos in Libya since the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

A fire raging at an oil storage facility at Libya's Es Sider port has destroyed up to 1.8 million barrels of crude, a top oil official said on Tuesday.   Total damage so far, including the lost oil, is estimated at $213 million, al-Mabrook al-Buseif, the top oil official of the recognised Libyan government, told Reuters.   (Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by David Goodman)

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

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.

Crude oil prices on both sides of the Atlantic rose on Friday as data showed strong jobs growth in the United States and investors cast doubt on reports Libya's oil ports were about to reopen. The March U.S. non-farm payrolls report showed 192,000 jobs were added in March in major test of the argument that the economic weakness of January and February was due to bad weather. Expectations had been building that an eight-month blockage of Libya's oil export ports would end after rebels and the government said they were close to an agreement. The Libyan government said it had seen evidence of "good intentions" at indirect talks with eastern rebels that could lead to renewed exports.

North Sea Forties crude differentials rose for a third day on Friday as the May loading schedule showed a drop in supplies from this month. The supply of North Sea crude that underpins the Brent benchmark will average 774,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May, according to loading schedules provided by trade sources on Friday, down from April. Planned maintenance at Oseberg will reduce supply of that grade to two cargoes, or 39,000 bpd, while supply of Forties will also be lower, trade sources said. No deals were done on Friday as traders assessed the May loadings, but bids were higher. Refining margins remained at healthy levels, according to Reuters models, giving end-user crude demand some support.

American forces yesterday boarded and took control of a commercial tanker ship, Morning Glory, that was seized earlier this month by three armed Libyans, Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a Defense Department news release issued today. "No one was hurt tonight when U.S. forces, at the request of both the Libyan and Cypriot governments, boarded and took control of the commercial tanker ‘Morning Glory,’ a stateless vessel seized earlier this month by three armed Libyans,” Kirby said in the release. The boarding operation, approved by President Barack Obama and conducted just after 10 p.m. EDT on March 16 in international waters southeast of Cyprus, was executed by a team of U.S. Navy SEALs attached to Special Operations Command Europe, Kirby added.

Former Libyan prime minister Ali Zeidan has fled to Europe after parliament voted him out of office on Tuesday over his failure to stop rebels exporting oil independently in a brazen challenge to the nation's fragile unity. Zeidan was in Malta for two hours late on Tuesday on a short stop before going to "another European country", Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told state-owned television TVM. Government sources in Malta said he had left via a private plane bound for Germany, but the German authorities could not confirm he had arrived.

Former Libyan prime minister Ali Zeidan has fled to Europe after parliament voted him out of office on Tuesday over his failure to stop rebels exporting oil independently in a brazen challenge to the nation's fragile unity. Zeidan was in Malta for two hours late on Tuesday on a refuelling stop before going to "another European country", Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told state-owned television TVM. But no European government had confirmed his arrival by late morning on Wednesday. The standoff over control of oil exports threatens to deepen dangerous regional and tribal faultlines in Libya where rival militias with powerbases in the east and west back competing political factions in the transitional government.

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)

British oil and gas company BP is hopeful of making good natural gas discoveries in Libya and plans to begin exploring there later this year, Reuters reported. BP and Libya signed a gas exploration deal last year that marked the return of the world's third-largest fully publicly traded oil firm by market value to the north African oil exporter after a 30-year break. Last year, BP said it would drill 17 exploration wells across a large area of 13.3 million acres with an initial exploration budget of $900m. Libya has attracted interest from international oil firms since 2004, when the United States and European Union eased sanctions following Libya's agreement not to pursue nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

The Maltese Government and Transport Malta said they are are investigating the alleged accident involving the Malta registered ship MT Baku, in international waters, off the coast of Libya. The government has been in continuous contact with the owners of the ship and the Libyan authorities, since Sunday evening when the events started to develop. Malta, as the flag State of the ship, made immediate representations with the Libyan Government and it was only after its intervention that the ship sailed to outside Maltese territorial waters. The safety of the crew and the ship was of utmost priority throughout the events. Malta shall continue to pursue the matter with the Libyan authorities in order to ensure that Maltese interests are protected in terms of international maritime law…

The Asia-Pacific crude market weakened on Monday with differentials for Russian Sokol depressed by slow demand during peak maintenance season, but a recovery in the naphtha market offset some of the losses. India's ONGC sold 700,000 barrels of light sweet Sokol crude for May 1-4 loading to Glencore at $7.50 per barrel above Oman/Dubai quotes on a cost and freight (CFR) basis, traders said. The company last sold Sokol for April loading at a premium of $8.50 per barrel. Sentiment in the crude market has weakened with many regional refiners undergoing maintenance, however, slight gains in the naphtha and middle distillate markets were supportive. Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS) <DUB-EFS-1M>, or Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, widened 11 cents to $4.01 per barrel.

The Libyan company, Hermes Communications Technology, has been awarded a VSAT License, issued by the Libyan government, which allows the company to provide VSAT communications to the oil and gas industry and other sectors in Libya. Glynn Wagg, Country Manager Libya, explains: “Our aim is to ensure that all our customers in Libya are provided with direct and extensive support and a more dependable and secure service. This license will aid our customers in receiving faster installations, clearer costs and the assurance of legal requirements”. Hermes Communications Technology, a joint venture partner of Hermes Datacommunications International Ltd, has an established presence within the Libyan capital, Tripoli, supplying VSAT communications, onshore and offshore, in city and remote locations.