Force majeure is still in place at Libya’s eastern oil ports of Zueitina and Hariga, despite the ports being handed back into government hands, according to an oil ministry official.
“Force majeure is still in place, it has not been lifted. National Oil Corporation has not instructed the ports to export oil yet,” Ibrahim al-Awami said.
Al Awami said staff at Arabian Gulf Oil Co, which runs the Hariga terminal, had joined a general strike in Benghazi that began on Sunday. It was unclear whether this would affect the port’s ability to resume exports.
Workers at Zueitina were carrying out maintenance and checking facilities before the resumption of exports, Al Awami said.
Only the western offshore oilfields Bouri and Al Jurf were producing and exporting as usual. Crude from the only open port in the east was being sent to the Zawiya refinery, to make up for the still-closed southwestern El Sharara oilfield, which normally feeds it.
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