Oil Tanker Loading Crude at Libya’s Brega Port, Engineers Say

 A view of pipelines and a loading berth of the Marsa al Hariga oil port in the city of Tobruk, east of Tripoli, Libya, Aug. 20, 2013. (Reuters)
A view of pipelines and a loading berth of the Marsa al Hariga oil port in the city of Tobruk, east of Tripoli, Libya, Aug. 20, 2013. (Reuters)
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Oil Tanker Loading Crude at Libya’s Brega Port, Engineers Say

 A view of pipelines and a loading berth of the Marsa al Hariga oil port in the city of Tobruk, east of Tripoli, Libya, Aug. 20, 2013. (Reuters)
A view of pipelines and a loading berth of the Marsa al Hariga oil port in the city of Tobruk, east of Tripoli, Libya, Aug. 20, 2013. (Reuters)

The 600,000-barrel oil tanker Front Jaguar was loading at Libya's Brega port on Wednesday, engineers told Reuters and Kpler data showed, despite a blockade that has halted other exports.

The tanker was permitted to load oil from storage after exports had been halted at major Libyan ports, the engineers said, without giving further details.

Crude exports at major Libyan ports have been shut for nearly a week and oil output has plummeted since eastern authorities in the divided country ordered a shutdown to all oil production on Aug. 26.

The eastern authorities' declaration was in response to western factions moving to oust veteran Central Bank of Libya (CBL) Governor Sadiq al-Kabir and replace him with a rival board.

Libya's two legislative chambers said on Tuesday they had agreed a mechanism for resolving the dispute over control of the CBL, which receives revenue from Libya's oil exports, the vast bulk of the national wealth.

Crude exports remained halted at Zueitina port on Wednesday but the 5,000 tons-capacity tanker Gaz United was expected to arrive there on Thursday to load propane, engineers there told Reuters on Wednesday.

The crisis over control of the CBL threatens to spiral and could end a four-year period of relative peace in the major oil exporter long split between factions in its east and west.

The National Oil Corporation, which controls Libya's oil resources, declared force majeure at the 70,000 barrels per day El Feel oilfield on Monday. Reuters had reported last week that output was halted there.

NOC said on Aug. 28 that total oil output dropped by more than half from typical levels to just over 590,000 bpd. It was not immediately clear where current production stood.

Reuters reported on Saturday that Libya's Sarir, Messla and Nafoura oilfields had been ordered to resume production by their operator, Arabian Gulf Oil Company, an NOC subsidiary.

About 150,000 barrels per day of output from Sarir and Messla was arriving at Hariga port for local consumption, while any excess was being stored, engineers at the fields said on Wednesday.



Polio Vaccines Give Gaza Families All Too Brief Respite from War

Palestinian children, accompanied by parents, wait to be vaccinated against polio, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian children, accompanied by parents, wait to be vaccinated against polio, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. (Reuters)
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Polio Vaccines Give Gaza Families All Too Brief Respite from War

Palestinian children, accompanied by parents, wait to be vaccinated against polio, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian children, accompanied by parents, wait to be vaccinated against polio, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 4, 2024. (Reuters)

Anxious parents lining up with their children for a polio vaccine in central Gaza were counting down the hours until a pause in fighting ends in the area on Wednesday, threatening more death and destruction in the 11-month-old war.

As health officials administered the doses, Gazan mother Huda Sheikh Ali wondered what good the polio vaccination campaign could do when her children would soon face more Israeli air strikes and shelling.

"There is no protection for them, in just a short few hours the ceasefire will end and we will return to seeing children bombed and killed. There is no protection from these things," she said.

"We managed to take a breather for a few hours, for our child ... imagine what it would be like with a permanent ceasefire. The children are dying every single day and they are giving us some vaccines for polio?"

The campaign was prompted by the discovery of a case of polio in a baby boy last month, the first in the Gaza Strip for 25 years. Israel and Hamas agreed to daily pauses of eight hours in the fighting in pre-specified areas to allow the vaccination program. No violations have been reported.

But a permanent end to the war is not in sight. Diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire, release hostages held in Gaza and return many Palestinians jailed by Israel have faltered.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7 when Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's subsequent assault on Hamas-governed Gaza has killed more than 40,861 Palestinians and injured 94,398, according to the Gaza health ministry. The ministry reported at the end of July that 10,627 children had been killed.

Most of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been uprooted from their homes and many families have moved repeatedly up and down the Gaza Strip in search of safe shelter.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Wednesday it was making good progress in rolling out a polio vaccine, but called for a permanent ceasefire to ease humanitarian suffering.

UNRWA said that three days into the campaign in areas of central Gaza, around 187,000 children had received the vaccine. The campaign will move to other areas of the territory in the second stage.

Palestinians say a key reason for the return of polio is the collapse of Gaza's health system and the destruction of most of its hospitals during the war. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes, something the group denies.

Hadeel Darbiyeh, who brought her infant daughter for the polio vaccination, said she shared the pessimism of other parents in Gaza.

"Instead of bringing the vaccines, bring us a solution to stop the war," she said. "Bring us a solution for the oppressed people who have all been forced to flee their homes and into tents."