Libya: Zueitina to resume activities before weekend

In a few days, operations will begin at the Zueitina oil terminal following the oil minister’s approval after protests by former rebels over social demands obliged it to halt.
Abduladeem Shareed, security supervisor at the terminal said they have “received information from the administration saying that the organization has decided to restart operations and oil pumping at the Zueitina terminal.” The terminal is located 800 kilometres east away from Tripoli and has the capacity to export 60,000 to 70,000 barrels per day but hasn’t been exporting for almost a month now. Security supervisor Shareed is confident that operations and shipping will begin before Friday.
Protesters’ threats have affected mainly the shipping of oil rather than gas, and the deputy oil minister said once pumping had resumed, it would take 10 to 14 working days for the first shipment to leave the terminal.  The chairman of the Zueitina oil Company is still not certain if the government reached an agreement with the protesters despite being urged to commence its activities as fast as possible.
Protesters target the interruption of oil facilities during demonstrations in order to easily attract the attention of the government. Libya’s oil minister said last week his ministry had reached agreement with the army chief, defense and interior ministries to secure exporting terminals, after a spate of protests that have caused disruption to the key industry, which is almost back to pre-war output levels of 1.6 million barrels per day.
The Libyan administration is still struggling to impose order on a vast and divided country and at the same time trying to increase the country’s oil producing capacity. The country depends a lot on its oil revenues from which the government derives almost all of its expenditures.