Fields responsible for the bulk of Libya’s oil exports will be forced to halt production within a month unless a blockade is lifted on the port of Marsa el-Hariga, according to the Tripoli-based National Oil Corp.
“In less than four weeks we will have to shut production completely because the tanks at Hariga will be full,” Mohamed Harari, a spokesman for NOC, said.
“The blockade will cause serious harm and bring no benefits.”
Factions controlling the east of the North African nation imposed the port blockade on April 30 after their bid to sell a crude cargo independently of Tripoli was stymied as the United Nations blacklisted the shipment.
With rising tensions between the UN-backed western-based government of national unity led by Fayez al Serraj and rivals in the east, oil production by Arabian Gulf Oil Co., which ships crude through Hariga, has dropped to 90,000 barrels a day from 240,000 barrels, the producer said last week.
The eastern branch of NOC said on Monday that it had no plans to block shipments from the port.
Oil exports from Hariga account for three-quarters of the country’s total, Harari said, adding that payments to the central bank will dry up and the dinar will be affected if the fields are shut down.
Output from Libya has slumped about 80 percent since the 2011 ouster of dictator Muammar Al Qaddafi as different groups compete for control of oil facilities in the nation with Africa’s largest proven crude reserves.
Oil flowing from some of the fields to Hariga is high in wax and will solidify in the pipelines if it doesn’t move, causing permanent production loss, Harari said. The tanker Seachance is moored off the coast, according to ship tracking data, after being prevented from exporting 1 million barrels of crude from the terminal.
“Open the ports for the wellbeing of our country,” NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in the statement. “Unity is the only solution.”