In a newly released report covering April 2022-July 2023, the UN Experts Panel on Libya identified a total of 24 small tankers (500 to 20,000dwt) loading refined oil products from Benghazi’s old harbor. Both the National Oil Corporation (NOC) and the Brega Petroleum Marketing Company confirmed to the UN that they regarded those exports as illegal. Benghazi and its port are under the control of Libya’s ‘second’ government based in nearby Tobruk and the affiliated ‘Libyan National Army’ of Khalifa Haftar with smuggling from the port nothing new (MEES, 20 May 2022). The report also found an increase in overland fuel smuggling, mainly across Libya’s southern and western borders. (CONTINUED - 256 WORDS)
