Oil-Field Flows to Libya's Key Port Resume

Libya's largest oil port Es Sider is now receiving supplies from oil fields after the terminal resumed exports despite intense fighting in the capital of Tripoli.

An oil official in Tripoli said late Thursday that the Waha Oil Co. was supplying 22,000 barrels a day to the Es Sider terminal in eastern Libya, after oil in storage at the port started to be shipped last week, ending a one-year stoppage.

The Waha Oil Co. is a partnership between Libya's National Oil Co. and U.S. companies Marathon Oil Corp., Hess Corp. and ConocoPhillips. It had previously been producing about 3,000 barrels a day used for maintenance and small supplies to the neighboring Brega oil terminal, the official said. But all Waha Oil Co.'s oil flows have now been redirected to Es Sider, the official said.

Libya's oil production has jumped to above 600,000 barrels a day--four times the level in late May--after deals between the government and protesters led to the reopening of fields and ports such as Es Sider.

Libya's oil industry is steadily recovering despite fighting between rival militias in Tripoli and the country's second largest city of Benghazi. In the latest development, a militia hailing from the Western coastal city of Misrata and its allies claimed to have wrested control of Tripoli's international airport over the weekend from a rival armed group. The takeover, which was confirmed by residents in Tripoli, came despite aerial bombing of the Misrata militia's camps on Saturday.

Write to Benoît Faucon [e-mail]

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