Rebels to Start Exporting Oil

AFP reports:

Libyan rebels appeared set to export oil for the first time in 18 days on Tuesday as a tanker capable of holding 100 million dollars' (70.5 million euros) worth of crude neared an eastern port.

The shipping news service Lloyd's List said the tanker was due to dock at the rebel-held port of Tobruk. The rebels would not confirm or deny the report, calling it a matter of "national security".

"There is a tanker which is scheduled to arrive later today at the oil terminal near Tobruk, according to Lloyd's Intelligence checking data," said Michelle Wiese Bockmann of Lloyd's List.

"We have yet to confirm if it has arrived ... The owner of the tanker has yet to comment," she said, adding that the Liberian-flagged ship was due to dock at the Marsa el-Hariga terminal.

"It's a Suezmax tanker and it's able to load one million barrels, or about 130,000 tonnes of oil. So it's over 100 million dollars' worth of crude."

A spokesman for the Transitional National Council in the rebel stronghold city of Benghazi declined to comment on the report.

"These are national security questions, telling the enemy what we have and what we don't ... So we prefer not to comment on these things," Mustafa Gheriani told AFP.

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi "is trying to bomb the oilfield, so this is a national security matter", he said, referring to an attack on the Mislah oil installation early Monday morning blamed on Kadhafi troops.

Libya, a key crude-exporting nation that was producing some 1.7 million barrels a day (bpd) before the uprising broke out in mid-February, has seen its output slashed since.