Libya’s National Oil Corp has offered the first crude oil from its major eastern Ras Lanuf terminal for end-July loading, two weeks after a rebel group agreed to end its nearly 1-year blockade of the bulk of the country’s oil facilities, according to Reuters.
NOC has issued tenders to sell 2 million barrels of crude oil from its recently reopened Ras Lanuf, a tender document and traders said on Wednesday.
NOC is offering a 1 million barrel cargo of Amna loading July 27-29, the tender document showed, and another 1 million barrel cargo of Sirtica crude oil loading July 24-26, traders said. The tenders close on July 17.
Until April, the rebels were holding four out of five eastern ports, cutting off over half of Libya’s export capacity of 1.25 million barrels per day, while on-off protests at western installations pushed exports close to zero.
The Ras Lanuf and Es Sider ports, which have a combined capacity of around 500,000 barrels per day, were reopened two weeks ago after a government deal with the rebels.
There was still no sign of any offers for oil from Es Sider.
Earlier on Wednesday, a senior Libyan oil official did not expect any exports from either the Es Sider or Ras Lanuf ports before August.
Traders have been slow to jump at the chance of buying Libyan crude owing to worries over quality after a lengthy storage time and high prices set by NOC.
NOC has had to sell some Mellitah crude at steep discounts to its official price of dated Brent plus 40 cents a barrel on a fob basis, as alternative grades are selling well below dated Brent.
