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Ulf Laessing News

18 Feb 2020

Vessels at Port of Libyan Capital Evacuated After Attack

Vessels including fuel tankers docked at the sea port of the Libyan capital were evacuated on Tuesday after an attack, two port officials said.Eastern Libyan forces, which have been trying to take the capital since April, said they had attacked a Turkish vessel discharging weapons, an eastern military official said. (Reporting by Ahmed Elumami and Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Alex Richardson)

10 Feb 2020

Libyan Oil Revenues Fall to Zero as Ports Blocked

© Puchthanun / Adobe Stock

Libya's vital oil revenues fell to zero in January, the central bank said on Monday, after forces and tribesmen allied to eastern commander Khalifa Haftar blocked major oil ports.Haftar is embroiled in a conflict with the internationally recognized government in Tripoli and has been trying to seize the capital by force since April.Tribesmen and forces loyal to him closed all eastern ports and major fields last month in a power play, part of chaos in Libya since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.The oil shutdown has caused losses exceeding 2.5 billion Libyan dinar ($1.78 billion)…

17 Jan 2020

NOC Condemns Calls for Oil Export Terminals to be Shut

© Juozas55 / Adobe Stock

Libya's state oil firm NOC on Friday condemned calls to shut oil export terminals in eastern Libya controlled by military commander Khalifa Haftar ahead of a summit in Germany where he will face pressure to halt his campaign to take the capital.Tribal leaders in eastern and southern Libya called on Thursday to shut the terminals in protest at what they called the internationally-recognized government in Tripoli's use of oil revenues to pay for foreign fighters.Eastern Libya and part of the south of the country is controlled by the Libya National Army (LNA) of Haftar…

24 Jan 2019

Libyan Oil Ports Es Sider, Brega Closed, Production Unaffected -NOC

The eastern Libyan oil ports of Es Sider and Brega have been closed due to bad weather but crude production has not been affected, an official from state oil firm NOC said.Storage capacity is sufficient for a few days and the remaining ports were open, the official said.Tankers were waiting to dock at Es Sider and Brega, port sources said.A shipper's note and a port engineer said the other eastern Libyan ports were also closed.A similar closure this month led to a temporary reduction in production by Waha Oil Co as storage capacity at Es Sider was limited after some tanks were damaged during clashes last year. (Reuters, Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli and Ahmad Ghaddar; writing by Ulf Laessing; editing by Jane Merriman and Jason Neely)

04 Dec 2018

Migrants die in boat off Libya, Egyptian survivor says

MISRATA, Libya, Dec 4 - Fifteen migrants have died in a boat off the Libyan coast after spending 12 days at sea without food or water, an Egyptian survivor said on Tuesday.Only 10 migrants from the capsized boat survived, all of whom were suffering from severe dehydration, Othman Belbeisi, head of the U.N. migration agency IOM in Libya, said on Twitter.The owner of a beach chalet found the migrants washing up on the shore near the city of Misrata and called authorities, who brought them to the Red Crescent relief service and hospitals, residents said."We were 25 migrants on a boat ... We set off from (the western Libyan town of) Sabratah and we were at sea for 12 days without food and water," the survivor said.

12 Nov 2018

Migrants Rescued by Cargo Ship Refuse to Disembark at Libyan Port

Some 95 migrants picked up by a cargo ship off the Libyan coast have refused to disembark in the western city of Misrata, officials from the United Nations and Libyan coast guard said on Monday.The Libyan coast guard, supported by Italy, has stepped up patrols to stop boats with mainly African migrants from leaving Libyan shores for Europe.A cargo ship bound for Misrata rescued on Thursday around 95 migrants whose boat was about to sink, Rida Essa, a Misrata-based coast guard commander, told Reuters.He said coast guard vessels had been unable to reach the site of the accident so the cargo ship brought them to Misrata, Libya's biggest port."They (migrants) did not want to leave the ship...We tried to negotiate with them and this has lasted for three days…

31 Jul 2018

UN says Migrants' Return to Libya by Italian Boat Could be Illegal

A rescue operation in which an Italian towboat rescued more than 100 migrants and returned them to Libya earlier this week may have been in breach of international law, the United Nations said on Tuesday.A spokesman for the U.N. migration agency said it could not establish the location of the rescue, which is key to establishing migrants' rights, although some other parties involved in the case have made contradictory assertions about the incident including where it took place.The rescue coincides with a growing perception among human rights groups that some European countries are taking an increasingly hard line in their efforts to cut the number of migrants arriving on their shores…

06 Jun 2018

Tunisia Sees Sharp Rise in Boat Migrants

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Tunisia stopped about 6,000 migrants leaving its coast for Europe in the first five months of the year - a sharp increase from the few hundred prevented in the same period last year, an interior ministry official said on Wednesday.Human traffickers have increasingly moved operations to Tunisia since a crackdown by the coastguard in neighboring Libya.Scores of migrants died when the boat carrying them sank on Sunday in the worst such incident off Tunisia's coast. The official said the death toll has now risen to 68."Since January 1 to the end of May 2018 we arrested about 6…

04 Jun 2018

At Least 48 Dead after Migrant Boat Sinks

At least 48 migrants were killed when their boat sank off Tunisia's coast and 67 others were rescued by the coast guard, officials said on Sunday, one of the worst migrant boat accidents in recent years.The boat went down near the southern island of Kerkenna, a tourist spot, in the night to Sunday, the defence ministry said in a statement. The victims were Tunisians and other nationalities, it said, without giving details.The rescue operation was suspended late on Sunday but will resume on Monday morning, officials said.Human traffickers increasingly use Tunisia as a launch pad for migrants heading to Europe as Libya's coast guard, aided by armed groups…

15 Mar 2018

Libya Seizes Tanker Suspected of Fuel Smuggling

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Libya's naval forces seized a Togo-flagged fuel tanker and arrested its Greek crew on suspicion they planned to smuggle oil out of the North African country, a spokesman for the forces said on Thursday. Libya's western coast is a departure point for the smuggling of heavily subsidised gasoline to neighbours such as Tunisia and Malta, where retail prices are much higher. "The naval forces seized a Togo-flagged oil tanker in the territorial waters without permissions from the state of Libya. It has the name LAMAR," naval forces spokesman Ayoub Qassem told Reuters.

12 Feb 2018

Sonatrach Eyes More Vessels to Boost Asia Gas Sales

(Photo: Sonatrach)

Algeria will acquire more vessels to transport gas to Asia as it eyes increased sales in that region, the chief executive of state energy firm Sonatrach said on Monday. "With Russia and the U.S., gas competition is tough," Abdelmoumen Ould Kaddour told reporters during a visit to the Hassi Messaoud oilfield. He gave no details. Kaddour also said Sonatrach's oil drilling in Algeria's southern neighbour Niger, where a Sonatrach unit was awarded a production-sharing deal in 2015, had been "satisfying" so far.

08 Feb 2017

Pirates Kidnap Cargo Ship Crew Nigerian Waters

Pirates have kidnapped seven Russians and one Ukrainian after attacking the cargo ship the BBC Caribbean off the coast of Nigeria, the Russian embassy said on its official Twitter account. The embassy has asked Nigerian authorities to assist in locating the abducted people, it said late on Tuesday. The Nigerian navy and police were not immediately available for comment. The general cargo vessel BBC Caribbean is managed by Briese Schiffahrts. "The armed pirates approached (the vessel) in a boat, captured the crew and left on the boat at the direction of the Nigerian shores," said Pavel Fedulov, the director of a Briese Schiffahrts subsidiary in St Petersburg, according to Russian news organisation RBC. No firearms were used during the attack, he was quoted as saying.

25 Oct 2016

Shell Resumes Crude Exports from Forcados Terminal

Royal Dutch Shell has resumed crude exports from the Forcados terminal in Nigeria's restive Niger Delta following repairs after a militant attack, the Nigerian presidency said on Tuesday.   "The Shell Director, Mr. Andrew Brown, informed the President of the resumption of oil exportation through the Forcados terminal following its restoration," the presidency said after a meeting between Brown and President Muhammadu Buhari.   (Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

03 Sep 2015

Libya Plans to Sell Ex-rebel Tanker

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.

06 May 2015

First Foreign Tanker Docks at Derna Since January Air Strike

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.

11 Mar 2015

Libya Exports Three Oil Tankers from Western Mellitah Port

Oil and condensate has been exported at least three times from the Libyan port of Mellitah since the start of this month, according to industry sources and ship-tracking data, a surprise move with other terminals in the west of the country largely shut. The North African OPEC member is split between two rival governments each allied to heavily armed groups that have been fighting for control of the oil-producing nation since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. The Mellitah port, not far from Libya's western border with Tunisia, is jointly-operated by Italian energy major ENI and the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC), and lies in territory largely controlled by a rival government that seized the capital Tripoli last summer.

06 Feb 2015

Port Battle Underscores Possible Libya Break-Up

Armed factions deploying heavy weapons. Peace talks making little progress. Hidden behind a pile of sand, a tank points its gun towards Libya's biggest oil port on the other side of an invisible frontier that now divides the north African nation. Factions fighting for control of Libya and its oil wealth have moved columns of heavy weapons to this new front line running through the middle of the country, escalating a conflict that Western powers fear may lead to a national break-up four years after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi. In an attempt to prevent Libya from sliding into all-out civil war, the United Nations hopes in the coming days to resume peace negotiations between the warring parties…

05 Feb 2015

Libyan Army Fights to Capture Benghazi Port

Clashes erupted in the center of Libya's main eastern city Benghazi on Thursday as pro-government forces pushed to take the port district from Islamist militants, and seven soldiers were killed, witnesses and military officials said. The port, the main gateway for food imports into eastern Libya, has had to close. The fighting mirrors a wider struggle in the oil producing North African state where two governments and parliaments, allied to rival armed groups, are vying for control almost four years after Muammar Gaddafi fell to an armed uprising. Backed by forces led by General Khalifa Haftar, army special forces in mid-October launched an offensive against Islamists in Benghazi, expelling them from the airport area and from several camps the army had lost during the summer.

03 Feb 2015

New Fighting for Libyan Oil Ports

New clashes erupted on Tuesday between rival factions fighting for control of Libya's biggest oil ports Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, killing at least 10 people, the two sides said. The fighting came a day after the United Nations said it was seeking a ceasefire to pave the way for a new round of peace talks between factions operating two opposing governments, nearly four years after Muammar Gaddafi's overthrow. Libya's internationally-recognised government under Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni and the elected House of Representatives have been based in the east since a group called Libya Dawn seized Tripoli last summer, set up its own administration and reinstated the old parliament.

27 Jan 2015

Libya Returns Fuel Tanker to Rival Government

Libya's recognized government has released a tanker forced to dock at a port under its control after originally banning it from delivering fuel to its rival administration, a port official said on Tuesday. War planes forced the tanker Anwaar Afriqya to sail to Tobruk after it had originally approached the port of Misrata, the air force commander for the recognized Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni said on Monday. Libya's recognized government has worked from a headquarters in the east of the country since the summer when rival forces under the banner Libya Dawn took over the capital Tripoli and installed their own self-proclaimed government.

26 Jan 2015

Libya Forces Tanker Away from Supplying Rival Government

Libya's recognized government said it forced a tanker from delivering fuel to its rival administration, diverting the vessel to its own territory by threatening an air attack on it. The tanker Anwaar Afriqya was approaching the port of Misrata, but diverted to Tobruk, a port official at the latter said on Monday. "Our planes are forcing an oil tanker to sail to Tobruk after it had been on the way first to Misrata," Saqer al-Joroushi, air force commander for recognized Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni, told state news agency Lana. Libya's recognized government works from a headquarters in the east of the country since the summer when rival forces under the banner Libya Dawn took over the capital Tripoli and installed their own self-proclaimed government.

05 Jan 2015

Warplane Bombs Greek-operated Oil Tanker at Port

A Libyan warplane from forces loyal to the internationally recognised government bombed a Greek-operated oil tanker anchored off the coast, killing two crewmen in an escalation of hostilities between factions vying to rule the country. Military officials said the vessel had been warned not to enter port and said it had been transporting Islamist militants to Derna, the eastern port city where the ship was at anchor when it was hit on Sunday. State oil firm NOC said it had leased the ship to carry fuel for power generation to Derna from Brega, an oil port to the west. The vessel was damaged but none of the 12,600 tonnes of heavy oil leaked out, the Athens-based operator Aegean Shipping Enterprises Co. said.

04 Jan 2015

Air Strikes on Port of Misrata

Forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognised government on Saturday staged air strikes on the commercial port of Misrata, a western city allied to a group that holds the capital Tripoli, both sides said. Fighting was also reported near the country's biggest oil export port located in the east, part of a struggle between troops loyal to two competing governments and parliaments. The internationally recognised prime minister Abdullah al-Thinni has been forced to run a rump state in the east since a group known as Libya Dawn linked to Misrata took control of Tripoli last August and set up a rival government. Saqer al-Joroushi, commander of an air force unit loyal to Thinni, said war planes had hit Misrata port and an air force academy located in the western city.