Tanker Granted Access to Zueitina Terminal

The Greece-flagged crude oil tanker New Hellas has been granted approval to enter Libya’s Zueitina oil terminal after the oil port was reopened at the beginning of August, according to the National Oil Corporation (NOC).

The 123,054 cbm tanker will now enter the terminal in order to transfer a crude oil shipment to the country’s Zawiya Refinery.

New Hellas is expected to transport about 620,000 barrels in each voyage from the terminal to the refinery, NOC said, adding that it plans to charter more ships to speed up the process of emergency discharge of Zueiteina terminal’s tanks.

The storage tanks contain about 3 million barrels of crude oil and 180,000 barrels of condensers.

Earlier in August, NOC called on rival armed groups to avoid destroying the oil port of Zueitina and secure safe passage to the terminal.

Under an agreement signed in July 2016, the Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG) and the Government of National Accord (GNA) agreed to reopen the country’s three oil ports, Ras Lanuf, Zueitina, and Es Sidra, that PFG has been blockading due to a pay dispute.