Libya government, oil guards reach deal to reopen ports | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-libya-security-energy-idUSKCN1090TZ
File photo of smoke rising from burning oil storage tanks in the port of Ras Lanuf, Libya, January 23, 2016.
REUTERS/STRINGER
Libya’s U.N.-backed government has signed a deal with an armed brigade controlling the major Ras Lanuf and Es Sider oil ports to end a blockade and restart exports from the terminals shut down since December 2014.
Reopening the ports would be a huge step for the North African state, which since the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi has slipped into chaos that has cut its oil output to less than a quarter of pre-2011 levels of 1.6 million barrels per day.
No specific date was set for restarting exports, but swift resumption would be hampered by technical damage from militant attacks and by opposition from the state-run National Oil Corporation, which objected to paying cash to reopen the ports.