Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar has agreed to end his
eight-month blockade on the oil terminal at Tobruk, allowing a tanker to enter
the port and take on a load of crude oil.
In talks brokered by the Russian government last week,
Haftar negotiated a deal with Ahmed Maiteeg, the deputy prime minister of the
internationally-recognized Government of National Accord, which controls the
western portion of Libya's coastline. Haftar controls the eastern half of the
country and has waged a long-running campaign to unseat the Tripoli-based
government, with suspected support from the UAE, Egypt, France, Sudan, Russia
and other state actors. The effort paused in June after his forces were
repulsed from the city's outskirts.
With the opening of the Marsa El Hariga Terminal in Tobruk, three
of Libya's main oil ports have now resumed operations. Libya's National Oil
Company also agreed to lift force majeure restrictions on the Brega and Zuetina
terminals after certifying that they were combatant-free. The large terminals
at Es Sider, Sawiya and Ras Lanuf remain closed and are still "being
evaluated according to the safety and security standards in force in the
national oil sector," the NOC said Tuesday.
Armed takeovers, attacks and embargoes have affected Libya's
export terminals many times since the fall of the Muammar Gaddafi regime in
2011. Haftar's blockade began in January, and with limited options for
accessing the export market, Libya's oil production fell from 1.2 million
barrels per day to less than 100,000 barrels per day as storage filled up. Now
that Haftar has secured "conditions that ensure a fair distribution of
revenue" between his forces and the Government of National Accord, exports
and production may resume.
The tanker Delta Hellas began lifting one million barrels of
stored oil at Hariga on Wednesday, clearing the way for two Libyan oil fields
to resume normal production.