Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has appealed to “all interested parties to immediately allow operations in the port of Zueitina to reduce stocks and free up storage capacity” while warning of “the imminent occurrence of an environmental disaster”.
In a statement released on Saturday, the state-owned oil company said it is “doing everything it can to resolve the bottlenecks by moving the Abu Attifil crude (produced in the Abu Attifil and Rimal fields) and storing it in designated tanks in the port of Zueitina. “
“Due to the waxy characteristic, this crude oil needs continuous mixing and heating, otherwise it will freeze with the loss of the entire pipeline,” NOC added.
NOC urged resuming “the immediate operation of the port, or at least to allow a shipment to reduce inventory and gain additional storage capacity”.
The difficulties encountered by the company in storing the quantities of crude oil risk causing an “environmental disaster” with “the spill of crude oil from the tanks of the Zueitina terminal,” warned NOC.