Libya's Es Sider is expected to restart exports in the coming weeks, with the first cargo likely to be lifted by Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) in the first week of November, a source at NOC revealed.

The cargo would be the first lifted since force majeure was declared on loadings from Es Sider port in December 2014.

This new development comes after production was resumed at the eastern Al-Waha fields, whose pipelines feed into the main Eastern oil terminals Es Sider and nearby Ras Lanuf.

“We hear it's an end of October-loading NOC cargo, and as far we know, they've not found a buyer yet,” trading sources said.

According to the NOC representative, the laycan will be during the first week of November and the Es Sider cargo will likely be lifted from nearby Ras Lanuf terminal.

Force majeure was lifted on the Ras Lanuf terminal on September 14, 2016 and more than a few cargoes of Sirtica and Amna crudes have been loaded from it.

Loadings from the Es Sider port were suspended, due to infrastructure damage which includes the fire damage, which happened during the civil war in the past few years and has not yet been renovated to allow crude exports.

Es Sider and Ras Lanuf have a collective capacity of 560,000 bpd and are the biggest and third largest ports in Libya.

“The pipelines are pumping [some volume] to Es Sider, as they are trying to rehabilitate the port and get one tank working but it's been difficult because of the damage. But they have to as some American companies are not allowed to lift except out of Es Sider -- so they'll they have to send it there eventually,” another crude trader said adding that production at the fields that feed into the Es Sider port was expected to increase further. “It's still early stages but the target should be 70,000 b/d in November and December,” he told Platts news.

Libya’s output has increased over the past two months, to over 580,000 bpd. The country’s unstable oil output this year was due to violence, political uncertainty, power shortages and technical problems, fluctuating between 230,000 b/d and 550,000 bpd.

Anita Fatunji