Libya: BP, Shell cueing up to buy oil

British Petroleum and its sister Dutch Shell have inked deals with the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) to buy ship-ments of Libyan oil, Libya Herald reports Friday.

The media said it received confirmation from the NOC that both European firms have signed deals to buy the Libyan oil.

Shell, according to Bloomberg, which has been also aware of the deal, will load Saturday (January 20) 600,000 barrels of crude from Zueitina port.

Shell was on the NOC’s customer list last year and bought a first shipment in August after five years of drought following the North African country’s descent into chaos.

BP on the other hand did not have any purchasing deal with Libyan oil authorities last year. It is unclear when BP will load. The company reportedly refused to make comments on the deal.

The oil-rich North African country has scaled up its production to about 1 million barrel a day at the start of this year, com-pared to 828,000 barrels a day recorded late last year.

The output is still far below record production under former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Bloomberg argues that the return of the two firms, which fea-ture among the world’s largest oil firms, heralds the im-provement in security and the well-being of the Libyan oil sec-tor still target of attacks by terror groups.