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Libya's biggest oil refinery faces restart delay Facilities in Ras Lanuf will be offline for at least a month longer as owners mull company restructuring
Libya's largest refinery, Ras Lanuf, which produces 220,000 barrels per day, is unlikely to restart for at least another month after a meeting between board members and shareholders, an official at the refinery operator Libyan Emirati Refining Co (Lerco) told Reuters. Lerco is a joint-venture between Libya's state oil company National Oil Corporation (NOC) and UAE-based Al Ghurair group. A board meeting with the new chairman and director of the refinery, both NOC officials, is expected to take place in Tripoli around mid-May and the refinery could restart soon after, but it was difficult to be precise, said the official. The company structure must be renegotiated, particularly with regard to crude supply and plans to double the refinery's capacity, the official said. Still too low production of its main feedstock grades, Sarir and Messla, has been further delaying the restart. Libyan Deputy Oil Minister Omar Shakmak told Reuters last month the Ras Lanuf refinery had been expected to restart at the end of March. "The revised plan is not finalised yet but more or less I'm expecting that maybe they need some more time," he said then.
