Libyan oil exports resilient in 2024

Market: Crude oil
07/01/25

Libyan crude exports dipped by just 2pc last year despite several months of politically-motivated blockades at ports and oil fields.

The country exported 973,000 b/d across its 12 crude grades in 2024, according to Argus tracking data, only marginally down on 2023 when 989,000 b/d was loaded, the second-highest year for exports since the civil war in 2011.

Exports averaged more than 1mn b/d in six out of the 12 months last year and hit 1.15mn b/d in December — the highest monthly average since February 2021. A rise in upstream activity over the past year has enabled Libya to boost its oil production to 1.4mn b/d in recent months — the highest in over a decade — and this has helped to offset the impact of disruptions to loadings earlier in 2024.

Libya's largest oil field, El Sharara, was shut by protestors on 2-21 January last year and again on 3 August.

The field feeds into the light sweet Esharara stream which is exported from the Zawia terminal. Esharara loadings fell to just 41,000 b/d in January 2024, sharply below the grade's average exports of 135,000 b/d in 2023. Exports of the grade plunged to just 20,000 b/d in August and ground to a complete halt in September for the first time since May 2022.

A leadership crisis at Libya's central bank then led to a blockade at ports and fields by Libya's eastern-based administration on 26 August which lasted until 3 October.

The blockade pushed total crude loadings to a near four-year low of 507,000 b/d in September. before recovering to 843,000 b/d in October, 1.09mn b/d in November and 1.15mn b/d in December.

Demand for Libyan crude from European buyers remained strong last year despite the disruptions. Europe accounted for 84pc of Libyan crude exports in 2024, up from an 80pc share in 2023.

By Kuganiga Kuganeswaran

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