NOC subsidiary Harouge Oil Company boosted its crude storage facilities at Libya’s key Ras Lanuf oil export terminal by 500,000 barrels on 17 September, replacing its tank No. 7. This now takes the port’s capacity to above 1mn barrels and to its highest level since 2016. Storage was previously 550,000 barrels from three smaller tanks after June 2018 fighting around the terminal resulted in a fire which knocked out two of the five storage tanks then operational (MEES, 29 June 2018).
Work to replace storage tanks No. 4 and No. 12 is ongoing. Ras Lanuf has an export capacity of 220,000 b/d – its pre-2011 storage capacity was 7mn barrels from 13 tanks. Years of war decimated Libya’s oil storage facilities. This has at times had the knock-on effect of forcing Libya to slash production when oil terminals have been shut down because of stormy weather or taken over by armed groups. Having ample storage means when exports terminals are unable to operate, crude can be stored to ship another day (MEES, 7 December 2018). (CONTINUED - 164 WORDS)
