Libya has started maintenance work at Es Sider port, the nation’s largest oil export terminal, as part of plans to increase output from Africa’s biggest holder of crude reserves.
Exports should resume in a month once official orders are received to reopen the port, Galal Mohamed, head of operations at Waha Oil Co. , said in a phone interview Sunday from Libya’s eastern city of Ras Lanuf. Es Sider,
“We haven’t received official orders to reopen the port and resume exports, but there were intensive meetings with the National Oil Corp. officials last week to discuss this,” Mohamed said. Six of the port’s 19 storage tanks are damaged from fighting over the last two years, he said.
Libya is seeking to boost crude production after rival leaders agreed last month to unify the state NOC under a single management. The bulk of the country’s oil infrastructure is either damaged or straddles disputed territory as armed factions fought for control of producing fields. The nation pumped 300,000 barrels a day of oil in July, compared with as much as 1.78 million a day in 2008, three years before a revolt led to the overthrow of the regime of Moammar al Qaddafi, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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