Page 11 - AfrOil Week 05 2020

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil
Libyan oil production reportedly down again
LIBYA
Libya’s oil industry has continued to su er over the last week.
On February 3, Bloomberg reported that output levels in the North African state were nearing 200,000 barrels per day. Production now stands at 204,000 bpd, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told the news agency.
e source’s report had not been con rmed as of press time. But if his information is cor- rect, Libyan output has fallen by around 1mn bpd since last year, when it topped out at 1.2- 1.3mn bpd.
As of last December, Libya was extracting about 917,000 bpd of crude. Production then dropped to 731,000 bpd in January. Most of the decline occurred a er mid-January, when opponents of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) began seizing and shutting down the country’s coastal oil export terminals.
Mustafa Sanalla, the head of National Oil Corp. (NOC), reported on January 28 that Libya was producing just 262,000 bpd and might see yields sink to 72,000 bpd or perhaps even zero within a matter of days. He also said that the country had lost about $560mn as a result of the blockades imposed by Khalifa Ha ar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) on oil export and trans- portation facilities.
Sanalla was speaking shortly before Bloomb- erg reported that tankers waiting to load up with oil had begun leaving Libya without lling their reservoirs. Citing tanker tracking data, the news agency said that as of January 29, at least four vessels capable of holding up to 3mn barrels of crude had departed from Libyan ports even though they remained empty. ( eir exit high- lighted the fact that the country does not have enough storage capacity to allow onshore elds to remain on stream when export infrastructure
is compromised, Bloomberg noted.)
Forces loyal to the LNA have seized the pipe- line that delivers crude to the Zawiya re nery, as well as export terminals in Brega, Es Sider, Hariga, Ras Lanuf and Zouetina. Represent- atives of the group have justi ed these acts by saying that they are trying to prevent GNA from using oil revenues to pay foreign ghters to come to Libya. ( e group has claimed that Tripoli is hiring Turkish mercenaries to bolster
its military position.)
LNA representatives have also demanded
that a larger share of revenue be distributed in the eastern regions under LNA control. Youssef al-Aqouri, the head of the Libyan parliamentary committee that oversees NOC’s performance, recently expressed support for this position, say- ing that GNA was “taking over the oil wealth” and was “monopolised by militias and ... not operating fairly.”™
Tanzania says fuel stocks are growing
The Ras Lanuf terminal has suffered serious damage (Image: NOC)
TANZANIA
TANZANIA has made concrete progress in its e orts to expand domestic petroleum product stocks, Energy Minister Medard Kalemani said.
Speaking at an awards ceremony for PUMA Energy Tanzania’s fuel retailers, Kalemani said that fuel inventories were now large enough to sustain up to two months of consumption. “As we are speaking now, the country has a surplus
of 197mn litres of diesel to sustain local con- sumers’ demand for 26 days, 97.2mn litres of petrol that can meet the demand for 38 days and some 130mn litres of jet fuel for 58 days,” he was quoted as saying by Tanzania Daily News.
e minister described these gures as evi- dence that reforms backed by Tanzanian Presi- dent John Magufuli were e ective.
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