National Oil Corporation (NOC) has declared a state of force majeure on crude oil loadings at Zawiya port on July 20, as per an official statement.

This is due to an unlawful valve closure of the Sharara pipeline between Hamada and the Zawiya port, which resulted in suspending production.

Accordingly, 290,000 barrels per day (b/d), valued at around $19 million a day, has been forced offline thus preventing NOC from carrying out crude oil loadings at the terminal.

However, NOC stated that production from El Feel oilfield was unaffected by the incident.

NOC’s subsidiary, Akakus Oil Operations, has informed the General Electric Company of Libya (GECOL) that crude oil supplies to the Obari power station will cease following this production disruption, the statement noted.

NOC recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Schlumberger to establish a specialized training and development center in Benghazi.