Libya's NOC to Lift Force Majeure at Es Sider Oil Port

Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said on Wednesday that it is ready to lift force majeure at Es Sider oil port, allowing a tanker on standby to load crude from storage.

The state oil company urged all Libyan parties to support it and called on what it described as "foreign mercenaries and armed groups" to leave the oil port immediately.

The Delta Ocean Suezmax tanker arrived at the port on July 5 and has been waiting since then, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

The tanker was chartered by trader Unipec, according to a shipping and a trading source. Another trading source said that it may end up loading in Egypt if it fails to load in Libya.

NOC has made other attempts to load crude from Es Sider's storage tanks in recent weeks without success, one of the sources said.

Es Sider, along with the other eastern ports of Ras Lanuf, Brega, Zueitina and Hariga, have been under force majeure since January because of a blockade imposed by eastern-based forces.

(Reporting by Mahmoud Mourad in Cairo and Ahmad Ghaddar in London, editing by Louise Heavens)