(Ecofin Agency) - Oil exports has resumed at the eastern libyan terminal of Hariga following the suspension of a pay protest by guards, but production at the Sarir oil field will remain on hold, officials revealed.

According to Port director, Yassin Ahmed, a Maltese-flagged tanker had docked at Hariga after the oil export port reopened and was loading 76,000 tons of crude.

The Al-Hariga terminal has an export capacity of about 120,000 bpd. The shutting down of the terminal had resulted in the suspension of production at the major Libyan oil field of Sarir, Reuters reports.

A spokesman for Libya's eastern state oil firm AGOCO, Omran al-Zwai, has said that production from the field would remain suspended until AGOCO received money for equipment and payment of debts.

Zwai added that production at the Messla field is at risk of being reduced from 70,000 barrels to 30,000 barrels due to storage constraints.

He however did not give further details of the amount of money the firm was seeking, but AGOCO has frequently complained about lack of resources to refurbish degraded equipment.

The protest at Hariga which began last week Wednesday was carried out by members of Libya's Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG).

More than a few major eastern Libyan terminals are still blocked by PFG.

Anita Fatunji