Libya's Eastern Oil Company to sign oil sales amid UN peace deal

DUBAI (Bloomberg) -- The National Oil Corp. affiliated with the internationally recognized government in eastern Libya said it will sign agreements with six companies to sell the country’s crude oil after a peace deal was signed between rival factions in the divided country.

 

Companies including Netoil SA will sell crude from the Mesla and Sarir oil fields via Hariga port, Nagi Elmagrabi, chairman of the Bayda-based National Oil Corp., said by phone. Netoil will market term contracts for next year, offering 2 MMbbl a month in cargo sizes of 1 MMbbl, said Robin Henderson, head of business development at the company.

 

“We will soon sign with six companies, including Netoil, for the sale of Libyan oil from Mesla and Sarir oil fields from Hariga port,” Elmagrabi said. “We are in negotiations with about 40 companies for crude exports.”

 

Libya has two administrations, one in the west and an internationally recognized government in the east. The NOC in the west is recognized by traders such as Glencore Plc and Vitol Group as the official marketer of Libyan oil. The eastern government has set up a separate NOC administration, which represents Libya in matters relating to oil including OPEC.

 

Elmagrabi said the headquarters of the NOC in the east will be moved from Bayda to Benghazi on Dec. 24., in line with a decision taken by his government in 2013. “We have invited all NOC employees to work from Benghazi.”

 

Glencore, Vitol

 

Rival Libyan factions from the Tripoli-based General National Congress in the west and the House of Representatives in the eastern city of Tobruk signed a peace deal on Thursday after a year in which opposing groups, each with its own legislature and armed allies, tussled over oil and power. The strife has caused output from the country with Africa’s largest oil reserves to slump almost 80% since Muammar Qaddafi was toppled in 2011. Libya pumped 375,000 bpd in November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

 

Elmagrabi’s announcement came after oil trading houses Glencore, Vitol, and Litasco SA declared their support for the western NOC. Glencore, the second-largest independent oil trader, confirmed last month that it had signed a deal with the Tripoli-based company to ship oil from Hariga since September.

 

Vitol, the world’s biggest independent oil trader, said Nov. 30 it was close to concluding a contract for 2016 with the Tripoli-based NOC, the “sole legal supplier of fuels to all of Libya.” Litasco sees “no alternative” to the NOC “to be our counterpart” for all crude and product deals with Libya, the trading unit of Russia’s Lukoil PJSC said in an emailed statement.