The Libyan government says that it has seen evidence of “good intentions” from protestors during indirect talks aimed at resolving a 600,000 bpd strangle hold on Libya’s oil ports, according to news agency Reuters.
But in an example of the chaos and shifting alliances typical of the OPEC producer, divisions in the rebel camp became apparent on Thursday when a senior member told Reuters he and seven others had quit the rebels’ leadership team in a conflict with top leader Ibrahim Jathran.
Hopes have been building in oil markets that an eight-month blockage of major oil exports ports will end ever since rebels and the government said they were close to an agreement.
Any deal will help stabilise the North African country, whose weak government seems unable to control militias who helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but kept their guns and made political demands on the state.
“There are good intentions,” acting Oil Minister Omar Shakmak told reporters in the eastern city of Benghazi, making clear that the contacts were taking place through tribal leaders who were negotiating with the port rebels.
He did not elaborate, and the government did not provide an update on the status of the talks.
Movement on the issue came after the federalist rebels last month managed to load oil onto a tanker at one port they control and force it out to sea in an attempt to sell the crude.
It was later boarded by U.S. commandos and returned to Libya, killing the rebels’ hopes to sell oil independently.
The resignations of the eight members of the rebels’ so-called politburo on Thursday leaves leader Jathran with a deputy and a self-declared prime minister to finish talks. Other members quit earlier, accusing him of concentrating power.
A deal, if confirmed, would not necessarily end the shutdown of several oilfields in western Libya by a different set of protesters.
Shakmak said the southwestern 340,000 bpd-El Sharara field, the El Feel field and an oil condensates pipeline from the Wafa field to the Mellitah port were all still closed by protesters.
Mellitah is run by Libya’s state oil firm and Italy’s . In contrast to the east, protesters at western oil facilities, such as El Sharara, are divided into small groups lacking joint leadership with whom Tripoli can bargain.
