A tanker which is reportedly carrying the first consignment of oil exported by Libya’s Eastern government has dropped anchor in international waters off Malta but is not being allowed entry into Maltese territorial waters.

Bloomberg reported earlier today that the oil had been sold to DSA Consultancy FZC, a company based in the United Arab Emirates.

The tanker Distya Ameya loaded 650,000 barrels of crude pumped from the Messla and Sarir oil fields at eastern Libya’s Hariga port, Omran al-Zwai.

The Libyan National Oil Company, based in Tripoli in western Libya called the shipment “illegal” and informed the country’s incipient UN-backed unity government about the eastern administration’s attempt to export oil independently.

Libya broke into two separately governed regions in late 2014.

The NOC leadership in Tripoli, recognised by traders such as Glencore Plc and Vitol Group as the country’s official crude marketer, has repeatedly warned traders against loading “illicit” cargoes of oil from the NOC administration in the east.

The eastern NOC is “fully committed to all contracts and agreements signed by past and future legal governments,” Elmagrabi said in a letter released yesterday.