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Protesters Prevent Tanker From Loading Oil At Libya's Hariga Port-Source
A view of pipelines and a loading berth of the Marsa al Hariga oil port in the city of Tobruk, approximately 1,500 km (932 miles) east of Tripoli August 20, 2013. PHOTO BY REUTERS.
By Ghaith Shennib
09/11/2013
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan protesters on Friday prevented a tanker from loading 600,000 barrels of crude bound for Italy at the eastern port of Hariga, blocked by a strike for more than two months, a port source said.
Last week, the state National Oil Corporation (NOC) said it had lifted its force majeure on exports from the eastern port near Tobruk in the far east after repeated promises from the government that the strike was over.
But protesters inside the port asked the harbour administration not to allow the loading of the Sierra Leone-registered ship at around 2 p.m. local time, the source said.
As a result the port will not allow the future loading of any tanker in Hariga unless there is an agreement with the tribes involved in the protests, the source said.
Libya's oil exports have fallen to their lowest since the 2011 civil war toppling Muammar Gaddafi as protests shut down terminals and fields in the North African country.
Oil is the Libya's main source of revenue and three months of outages will hit the spending power and authority of an interim government that is already struggling to assert its authority in a country awash with guns and powerful militias. (Reporting by Ghaith Shennib; writing by Ulf Laessing; editing by Keiron Henderson and Tom Pfeiffer)
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