Oil Corporation Allied to East Libya Govt Loading Tanker for Export
A parallel national oil corporation allied to Libya's eastern government was loading a shipment of 650,000 barrels at the Marsa el-Hariga terminal on Monday in an effort to sell oil for the first time, officials said.
Loading of the Indian-flagged Distya Ameya had started on Monday morning and would be finished later in the day, an official with the eastern NOC in Benghazi said. Eastern NOC head Nagi al-Maghrabi confirmed by text message that the tanker was loading, and a Hariga port official said the tanker was expected to sail later on Monday.
The eastern NOC said efforts to load the tanker at the end of last week had been foiled by pressure from the NOC in Tripoli, which has so far retained control over Libyan exports with the backing of Western governments.
(Reporting by Aidan Lewis in Tunis, Ahmad Gaddar in London and Ahmed Elumami in Tripoli. Writing by Aidan Lewi)
