LIBYA - The Oil Terminals.

NOC has six oil terminals and storage facilities along the coast from Tobruk in the east to Zawiya in the west: Tobruk's Marsa El Hariga, Zueitina, Marsa El Brega, Ras Lanuf, Es Sider, and Zawiya.

Marsa El Hariga, consists of three berths with a loading capacity of 8,000 tons/hour for tankers of up to 120,000 dwt. It is run by Arabian Gulf Exploration Co., one of NOC's upstream operating subsidiaries. Ancillary facilities at the terminal include oil products storage tanks with a capacity of 116,500 cubic metres and two 10-inch, 25 km pipelines for oil products from the Tobruk refinery, 18,000 b/d.

Marsa El Brega, the site of Libya's LNG plant (see Gas Market Trends), is operated by the Brega Co., another NOC unit. The terminal has three crude oil berths for tankers of up to 300,000 dwt. The facility includes a dock for tankers to load or discharge refined products, a berth for LNG tankers and another for LPG, plus three jetties to load ammonia, methanol, caustic soda and urea.

An 800-metre end section of a 1,700-metre long refinery jetty at Marsa El Brega has been replaced by Saipem. An SBM at the terminal and a 2.5 km pipeline have been installed by Saipem under a contract awarded in 1993.

Zueitina, operated by NOC's Zueitina Oil Co., has five offshore crude oil loading berths, with three SBMs and two CBMs. The terminal can serve tankers of up to 270,000 dwt and can load them at a maximum rate of 6,500 tons/hour. In addition, there are four breasting dolphins to load LPG onto carriers of up to 32,000 cubic metres.

Ras Lanuf is the site of a major oil export refinery and petrochemical complex (see Downstream Trends, SP 21-24). The terminal has three CBMs and three inner ports. It can serve tankers of up to 250,000 dwt and load them with crudes or products at a maximum rate of 7,000 tons/hour. A nine-berth terminal for petrochemical exports is to be built at Ras Lanuf.

Es Sider is a dedicated crude oil terminal operated by Waha Oil Co. It has three CBMs for crude exports to load tankers of up to 250,000 dwt at a maximum rate of 6,600 tons/hour.

Zawiya, the site of another oil refinery, has three offshore berths which can serve tankers of up to 140,000 dwt for both crudes and oil products. Crude oil can be loaded at a maximum rate of 4,500 tons/hour. Refined products can be loaded at 500 tons/hour. The terminal is to have two new berths and an 800- metre breakwater, for which bids have been made by several major contractors.

There are crude oil and products storage facilities at these terminals and within the Oilinvest system in Europe. Occasionally, Oilinvest leases storage facilities for crudes and products in Europe and Malta.