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| Africa North |
| Libya May Ship First Cargo of Crude This Month |
| 2011-09-10 |
| [Tripoli Post] It is reliably understood that the new Libyan government, later on this month may export its first crude cargo since March from the country's west. It would be a great boost following efforts by the National Transitional Council to rebuild production after the ousting of the Muammar Al Qadaffy ...Custodian of Wheelus AFB for 42 long years... regime. Quoting three people with direct knowledge of the transaction, Bloomberg reports that an 80,000 metric-ton cargo of crude is being offered for shipment from the port of Mellitah this month. The amount of oil is equal to about 600,000 barrels, and may be loaded from September 15-17. The same sources however declined to be identified because the consignment has yet to be publicly announced. The influential organization explains that brent crude oil gained 21 percent to $114.47 a barrel in London this year, partly because Libyan production collapsed during the conflict that began in February. With Libya wanting to resume crude exports in two to three weeks, Thomas Zwick, an analyst at shipping consultants Lorentzen & Stemoco AS in Oslo said that the loading is likely the first from the nation's west since March, Meanwhile, ...back at the the conspirators' cleverly concealed hideout the long-awaited message arrived. They quickly got to work with their decoder rings... Thina Saltvedt, an analyst at Nordea Bank AB in Oslo said that, "This should contribute to calming down the Brent market, but we still need to see more cargoes coming out." She also has a price forecast of $110 a barrel for the fourth quarter. She described Libya's, "an important cargo." According to the Gay Paree-based International Energy Agency, which advises 28 industrialised nations, Libyan crude output slumped to 60,000 barrels a day in July from 1.7 million barrels in January. Guma El-Gamaty, the U.K. coordinator for the country's National Transitional Council told Bloomberg that Libya resumed operations at its 120,000 barrel-a-day Zawiyah refinery near the capital, Tripoli, about two weeks ago. "The plant is processing 30,000 barrels a day and will reach full capacity in six to eight weeks," adding that the crude-export facility in the eastern port city of Tobruk is undamaged. The shipment is the type normally carried on an aframax tanker. Charter rates for the vessels to haul cargoes across the Mediterranean Sea doubled when the conflict broke out before slumping because of reduced cargoes, according to data from the Baltic Exchange in London, which assesses freight rates on international maritime routes. Libyan crude output increased to as much as 1.87 million barrels a day in 2008 from 1.38 million barrels in 2002, according to U.S. Energy Department data. |
| Posted by:Fred |