New Libyan firm starts exporting crude

A little known Libyan upstream company has begun exporting crude with its first shipment heading to China, according to sources, official documents and ship-tracking data seen by Argus.

Arkenu Oil Company, which describes itself as a private oil and gas development and production firm, exported 1mn bl of Sarir/Mesla blend crude from Libya's Marsa El Hariga oil terminal on 10 July on Suezmax-class tanker Zeus. Shipping agent and port reports list Chinese trading firm Unipec as the vessel's charterer.

The tanker's bill of lading lists Libyan state-owned NOC as the sender of the consignment on behalf of Arkenu. Libyan crude sales have historically been the reserve of NOC and a handful of international oil companies that hold equity stakes in production assets in the country, including Italy's Eni, TotalEnergies and Austria's OMV. Turkey-based commodities trader BGN, which does not have any upstream production in Libya, also regularly appears on loading programmes as a seller of the country's crude.

A document dated 10 July showed NOC had allocated to Arkenu an unspecified share of production from its subsidiary Agoco's Sarir and Mesla fields, in return for carrying out upstream development work on the fields. The arrangement implies Agoco is paying for Arkenu's services in the form of crude. Arkenu's 1mn bl cargo is worth around $84mn at current market rates, Argus estimates.

Arkenu, set up in early 2023 in the eastern city of Benghazi, says it owns modern drilling rigs and has a team of experts "who have held high positions in major oil production and development companies". It is unclear what work Arkenu has carried out for Agoco.

Sarir and Mesla accounted for most of Agoco's 279,000 b/d of output in 2023.

Libya is politically divided between an internationally recognised administration in the west, which has historically controlled oil revenues, and a rival administration in the east, which is home to around three-quarters of the country's oil production capacity. Agoco is based in the east, and NOC in the west.

Libya produces just over 1.2mn b/d of crude. Its oil export revenues were $30.7bn in 2023, according to Opec.

Arkenu, NOC and Unipec have been contacted for comment.

By Aydin Calik