Libyan National Army Lifts Blockade Of Terminals, Unipec Seeks To Resume Liftings
The Libyan National Army led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar has agreed on 18 August to lift the blockade of oil terminals and oil installations, allowing loadings of oil, condensate and gas to resume. With storage tanks at most terminals full, production from most oil fields has not restarted, but China’s Unipec has been fixing vessels for prompt cargoes for the end of August before the LNOC term programme gets going again.
The decision of the LNA to lift the blockade follows some intense diplomacy involving most of the powers involved in the Libyan conflict and, especially, a mediation effort by the US State Department and US Embassy in Libya. On the eve of the decision by the LNA to loft the blockade, the Turkish, German and Qatari Foreign Minister were in Tripoli for a meeting with their GNA counterpart and there was a flurry of phone calls, notably between Turley’s President Erdogan and Russia’s President Putin; and between Turkey’s Foreign Minister and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Prior to this, on 8 August, the US Embassy in Tripoli issued a communique indicating a diplomatic breakthrough in securing the agreement in principle of the GNA and the HOR to a de-escalation of the conflict and a resumption of oil exports, to be followed by UN-led negotiations. The statement reads: ‘A US delegation led by National Security Council Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Major General Miguel Correa, and Ambassador Richard Norland, held virtual discussions with Libyan officials on August 7 to advance concrete, urgent steps to find a demilitarized solution for Sirte and al-Jufra, and re-open Libya’s oil sector with full transparency’.
The last qualification of ‘full transparency is clearly a concession to the HOR, which claims that the previous agreement on oil sales was opaque and manipulated in favour of the GNA in Tripoli. As a condition for the resumption of oil exports, the HOR has been insisting that the proceeds from oil sales are entered to an international escrow account, and also demanding an audit of the Libyan Central Bank – to see where the proceeds have gone. The commitment secured by the US doesn’t go that far; the US has solicited some commitment from Tripoli to openness, but it may not be enough to satisfy the HOR.
At the same time, the US statement reiterated the US position that foreign forces must leave Libya, but notably did not register any agreement on this by the HOR officials involved in the talks, who were led by HOR Foreign Affairs Committee Chair, Yousef al-Agouri. The statement also omitted any rtefere3ncer to what is the HOR’s concern about the role of Turkey in support of the GNA.
So far, the US is not accepting any equivalence between the role of Turkey backing the GNA and the presence of the Russian Wagner Group in support of the LNA. However, it does now seem to be at least addressing HOR’s demands for the withdrawal of Turkey. On 10 August, the US Ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, met with Aguila Saleh, the Speaker of the HOR in Cairo, where the Turkish intervention was discussed. It is understood that Saleh agreed to a US proposal to meet with officials from Western Libya, but told Norland that the GNA militias around Sirte and al-Jufra must be withdrawn; and he also pressed the demand for affair distribution of oil revenues before oil production could resume.
The flurry of diplomacy follows a call from the US National Security Advisor, Robert O’Brien, on 5 August for ‘all parties – both those responsible for the current escalation and those working to end it – to enable the National Oil Corporation to resume its vital work, with full transparency, and to implement a demilitarized solution for Sirte and al-Jufra, respect the UN arms embargo, and finalize a ceasefire under the UN-led 5+5 military talks.
In preparation for the virtual talks, the US Chargé d’Affaires in Libya, Joshua Harris, visited Benghazi on 29 July to consult with HOR officials; the day before he was in Misrata, home-base of the GNA Interior Minister, Fattih Bashagha.
