Thursday, Nov 17, 2011
LONDON (Dow Jones)--The first oil tanker from Repsol YPF SA's (REP.MC) Libya joint venture is expected to be loaded early December, a local manager said late Wednesday.
The expected shipment from Akakus Oil Operations--the first since the toppling of Moammar Gadhafi--is the latest evidence that Libyan oil is returning to global markets.
Speaking to Dow Jones Newswires, Najeeb Tantoush, the manager in charge of operations at the giant Sharara field, said: "The first tanker, it will be by the first week of December." It will lift over 600,000 barrels from the Zawiya terminal and be marketed by Libya's National Oil Co., he said.
Sharara, the largest Libyan oil field with a foreign partner, restarted last month and is now producing 150,000 barrels a day, Tantoush said.
Its output was 340,000 barrels a day before the war.
A Repsol spokesman declined to comment beyond Nov. 10 remarks by chief financial officer Miguel Martinez, who said gross production from its Libyan operation was 100,000 barrels a day at the time and is estimated to average 170,000 barrels a day in 2012.
-By Benoit Faucon, Dow Jones Newswires; +44-20-7842-9266; benoit.faucon@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
17-11-11 1227GMT
