Page 7 - DMEA Week 04 2021

DMEA POLICY DMEA

Libya prepares to restart pipeline, but labour

dispute may interfere with exports

LIBYA LIBYA’S National Oil Corp. (NOC) is working platforms, pipelines, refineries, storage tanks
to resume regular shipments of crude oil from and other facilities, he said during a conference
National Oil Corp took fields in the Sirte basin to the coastal terminal hosted by the Atlantic Council on January 21.
less than two weeks to of Es Sider, but an ongoing labour dispute may “This [pipeline leak] gives you an indication
fix the leak. complicate its efforts. that the infrastructure in Libya is really in bad
According to previous reports, Waha Oil Co. shape,” Sanalla was quoted as saying by Bloomb-
(WOC), one of NOC’s subsidiaries, discovered a erg. “We are now discussing with our partners
leak in the pipeline leading to Es Sider last week. how to finance and how they can help us. If
It responded by suspending shipments through the government can’t give the NOC the right
the link so that it could start repairs, and as a con- budget, maybe we can take the budget from our
sequence Libyan oil production dropped from partners.”
about 1.25mn barrels per day to a little more than
1mn bpd. Loadings suspended
Initially, WOC said it expected to wrap up the Meanwhile, loadings at Es Sider and two other
repair work in about two weeks. But on January Libyan terminals were suspended on January
23, the NOC subsidiary said in a press release 24, amidst a labour dispute involving salary pay-
that it had completed the job. Then on January ments to the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), a
24, a source with knowledge of the matter told paramilitary force responsible for protecting the
Bloomberg that the pipe was already back on country’s oil export facilities.
service and pumping 98,000 bpd of oil as of the According to press reports, PFG members
previous day. He also said that throughput was ordered workers at Es Sider, Marsa el-Hariga and
set to rise to 300,000 bpd within the next two Ras Lanuf to stop loading oil onto tankers. They
days. said they had done so because Libyan authorities
These reports emerged just a few days after had failed to meet their deadline for the payment
Mustafa Sanalla, NOC’s chairman, asserted that of several months’ worth of overdue wages.
the problems with the link served to demonstrate Libya’s Ministry of Finance has already begun
the poor condition of many infrastructure facil- talks with the PFG in the hope of resolving the
ities in Libya’s oil sector. NOC is hoping to work matter, a source told S&P Global Platts on the
with the international oil companies (IOCs) evening of January 24. The UN, which has been
active in Libya to address the consequences of working to support efforts to form a unity gov-
prolonged civil conflict, which has disrupted ernment in Libya, is likely to play a role in these
efforts to maintain and repair production discussions, the source said.™

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