Monday, April 4, 2011

Oil Tanker Arrives Near Rebel Controlled Libyan Terminal

The Liberia-flagged Equator tanker is off Port Said, Egypt, early on Monday and is expected to dock at the Marsa el-Hariga crude oil export terminal near Tubruq, in east Libya, on Tuesday morning, according to Lloyd’s Intelligence, the shipping industry data provider.


The quickness with which Libyan rebels have been able to set up the logistics and infrastructure to ship oil from Libya continues to amaze. As I have pointed out, the rebels have already set up a central bank and the U.S. Treasury, thinking way ahead during its freezing of the assets of Libya's National Oil Corp, added this clause to its relase on the freezing of Gadaffi's oil assets :

 Treasury will continue monitoring the National Oil Corporation’s operations in Libya. Should National Oil Corporation subsidiaries or facilities come under different ownership and control, Treasury may consider authorizing dealings with such entities.

If I didn't know better, I'd swear that this is very much an organized effort, with significant pre-planning, and CIA boots on the ground.

According to FT,  oil traders and tanker shipbrokers said they did not know who had chartered the vessel, a Suezmax built in 1996 capable of carrying about 1m barrels of oil. At current prices, 1m barrels of east Libyan oil should sell for about $125m.

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