The National Oil Corporation (NOC) closed on Thursday all Libya’s oil export ports due to bad weather and heavy rains.
In a Thursday statement, NOC announced that storage at Zawya oil terminal has reached its lowest levels, causing a reduction in oil production on Thursday.
Earlier on Wednesday, several eastern Libyan oil ports, including Es Sider and Ras Lanuf have also closed due to bad weather, a port engineer told Reuters.
The airport in the main eastern city of Benghazi has also closed due to heavy rain, an airport source said.
Libya has the largest proven crude oil reserves in Africa, with 48.4bn barrels, which constitutes the main pillar Libya’s economy as oil exports provide more than 90 percent of government revenue and over 95 percent of export earnings, according to British Petroleum Statistical Review of World Energy released in June 2018.
Ongoing instability and the vulnerability of oil infrastructure due to oil worker strikes and attacks by armed groups have largely hindered Libya’s oil production and halved Libya’s oil export, although oil production experienced a significant increase in 2017.
This has caused a dramatic drop in hard currency revenues and a shock to an economy heavily dependent on imports of consumer goods, causing an increase in prices.
