Libyan oil company resumes exports after months of blockade

Libyan oil company resumes exports after months of blockade:

Libya’s national oil company announced Friday it has resumed crude exports, ending a months-long blockade that eastern tribes had called to protest revenue distribution in the war-torn country.

The National Oil Corporation said the resumption of exports from Libya started on a small scale, and would reach just 650,000 barrels a day by 2022 because extensive repairs, costing “billions of dinars,” are needed in the facilities following months of neglect. 


The corporation also lifted force majeure on all oil exports, promising to fulfill its existing contracts for the first time since January.

Powerful tribes loyal to east-based military commander Khalifa Hifter had reduced the country’s production of 1.2 million barrels a day to a trickle in January as a challenge to their adversaries in western Libya, the U.N.-supported government in the capital, Tripoli. Last week, the tribes offered to end the blockade and negotiate a restart in production as part of a political settlement.