Persisting security concerns over Libya’s oil export capacity and the political divisions in the country fetch large tanker freight premiums for shipowners daring to call at Libyan ports for crude oil loadings, shipbroker and shipowner sources told Platts on Friday. Earlier this week, Libya’s crude oil production exceeded 1 million bpd for the first time since June, when port blockades and a kidnapping caused production outages that within a month brought production to as little as 670,000 bpd. Despite the production recovery, fresh protests at the oil terminal and refinery servicing the country’s largest oil field, Sharara, threaten to shut down production again, with sources telling Platts they expect a complete shutdown of the field. Amid this volatile security situation, with militias fighting at ports and oil export disruptions, many shipowners shun transportation of Libyan oil cargoes. This in turn raises the premiums of freights on Libyan routes by […]