Libya has successfully loaded a 750,000 barrel cargo of oil from its eastern port of Zuetina, an oil official said on Saturday.
The tanker loaded crude from the port’s tanks, the official said, as crude flows from connected fields were still blocked by protests.
Local residents have blocked the oil pipeline from the Nafoura oilfield to Zuetina, demanding that the state oil firm hire them.
“The port is working normally but there are no new crude flows,” said the oil official. “They are now emptying the port’s tanks.”
Zueitina was one of the few Libyan ports still exporting oil after the largest, Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, closed in December because of clashes between armed groups allied to Libya’s two governments.
The closures have knocked down Libya’s oil production to 380-400,000 bpd, an industry source told Reuters on Friday. The OPEC member had pumped up to 1.6 million bpd in 2010 before an uprising toppled Muammar Gaddafi, sending the country and industry into turmoil.
