Libya's oil sector is showing tentative signs of recovery, with production now averaging around 300,000 b/d after the restart of the key Elephant field and with exports from the eastern ports of Marsa al-Hariga and Zueitina resuming after a brief period of inactivity.
A spokesman for Libya's state-owned National Oil Corp. said output was some 300,000 b/d.
The 130,000 b/d capacity Elephant field, which had been shut in for months because of protests and strikes, restarted on June 16, boosting Libya's production from recent lows of around 150,000 b/d.
Elephant crude can be exported from the 160,000 b/d Mellitah terminal on Libya's Mediterranean coast or be refined in the northern Zawiya refinery.
According to Platts vessel-tracking software cFlow, the crude oil tanker Scorpio loaded at Mellitah over the weekend and is now bound for the Italian port of Trieste.
If confirmed, it would be the first export cargo since Elephant resumed operations.
When production was resumed at the field, the first vessel to load at the port was EBN Batuta, which left laden for Zawiya.
Since the suspension of production at the 340,000 b/d Sharara crude field in southwestern Libya which typically supplies Zawiya, NOC has supplied the plant with crude loaded from other terminals.
There is still no indication of when Sharara may resume production.
EASTERN EXPORTS
Libya has also resumed crude oil exports from the 110,000 b/d Marsa al-Hariga oil terminal, the NOC spokesman said. "We are exporting 750,000 barrels of Mesla and Sarir type crudes," he said.
According to cFlow, the cargo was exported aboard the crude tanker Alexia, reportedly last chartered by Total.
The vessel left Marsa al-Hariga over the weekend carrying the first cargo to load out of the terminal in more than a month.
Alexia had been sitting outside of the port since late May, reportedly prevented from loading by guards at the port.
Previously, the last vessel recorded as leaving the port was Aegean Legend, which departed May 18 for Trieste.
Phoenix Beacon, which also arrived late May, is still outside the terminal.
A second shipment, estimated at 600,000 barrels, is expected to be loaded from Marsa al-Hariga early this week, NOC said.
The first cargo loaded from the eastern port of Zueitina in more than a month has also set sail, and is approaching Genoa.
The Minerva Clara reportedly loaded at the port a little more than a week ago, though it is unclear whether it was carrying the port's few remaining barrels of storage or fresh production from the Zueitina fields which feed the terminal.
Production at the field had been slow to restart after Libya's central government reached an agreement with Cyrenaica separatists to reopen the terminal in late April.
