Opec oil producer Libya told its customers yesterday it could make no promises on crude deliveries next month as on-off strikes paralysed its major sea terminals.
The North African country’s exports provided nearly 1.5 per cent of global supplies until June, but output has since plunged, putting upward pressure on international oil prices.
Libya’s state National Oil Corp (NOC) said in a statement it could provide no September loading schedules, normally sent to contract buyers of its gasoline-rich crude by this time of the month.
The NOC chairman, Nuri Berruien, told Reuters the September schedules “will be modified, not cancelled... because of the current sit-ins at ports and fields.”
Labour unrest gripping Libya’s oilfields and ports has cut output to the lowest since the 2011 war that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi, and some analysts say it is well below 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), compared with 1.3 million bpd in June.
Some estimates put exports as low as 300,000 bpd, depriving the 90 million bpd world market of approaching one million bpd - largely consisting of highly-prized light sweet crude.
Striking security guards on Monday again shut the country’s two biggest crude export terminals, Ras Lanuf and Es Sider, just hours after they had reopened from a two-week stoppage.
The September [exports] will be modified, not cancelled
Late on Monday the deputy oil minister said exports from Es Sider could resume tomorrow, once some output from associated oilfields restarted and a new schedule was made, but the NOC statement admitted firm undertakings for September were not yet possible.
“Due to continuation of strikes in some Libyan terminals (Ras Lanuf, Es Sider, Zueitina, Marsa Al-Hariga)... we are not able to allocate any quantity of crude oil exports from those terminals during September 2013,” the NOC statement said.
The drop in availability of Libyan crude oil was a major factor, along with prospects for disruption of Iraqi exports, in driving global benchmark Brent crude oil futures up towards $110 per barrel yesterday.
As a result, European refiners are set to cut crude oil processing rates by around 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) as high oil prices hit their already weak profits.
The outages are already undermining prospects of foreign investment in the oil sector, and the postponement of loading schedules could hurt confidence in the country as a supplier, which risks forcing it to discount prices in future.
The strikes by workers and occupations of facilities by jobless people seeking employment has made accurate readings for Libya’s output and exports difficult.
One industry source with close ties to Libya estimated production on Monday at around 545,000 bpd, well below total capacity of around 1.6 million bpd. Other analysts put it lower.