Libya's fluctuating crude output and exports continue to tease global oil markets. Early this month, state-run National Oil Corp. (NOC) was heralding the reopening of the giant El-Sharara and Elephant oil fields, which account for some 30% of Libya's pre-blockade 1.2 million barrels per day of production. But just three days later the southwestern fields were shut and force majeure again reimposed by NOC. It is a pattern that elicits little more than a shrug and an eye roll now from traders and Mediterranean-based refiners, who say Libyan term contracts are not worth the paper they are written on. But as the upper hand in Libya's civil war appears to have swung toward the UN-backed government of Prime Minister Fayez Serraj, hopes are rising that a partial lifting of the blockade may be in the cards.
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