Arkenu Oil, a private oil and gas development and production company, exported 1 million barrels of Sarir/Mesla crude from Marsa el-Hariga port on July 10.
The shipment was transported by the Suezmax vessel Zeus, chartered by the Chinese trading firm Unipec, according to shipping agent and port reports.
The bill of lading indicates that the Libyan state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) sent the consignment on behalf of Arkenu.
Historically, Libyan crude sales have been managed by the NOC and a few international oil firms with stakes in the country’s upstream sector, including Italy’s Eni, TotalEnergies, and Austria’s OMV.
Turkey-based commodities trader BGN, which does not have upstream production in Libya, also frequently appears on loading programs as a seller of Libyan crude.
A document dated July 10 shows that the NOC allocated an unspecified share of production from its subsidiary Agoco’s Sarir and Mesla fields to Arkenu in exchange for development work at these sites.
This arrangement suggests that Agoco is compensating Arkenu for the development work in crude oil. Arkenu’s 1 million-barrel cargo is estimated to be worth around $84 million at prevailing market rates, according to Argus.
Founded in early 2023 in the eastern city of Benghazi, Arkenu claims to own modern drilling rigs and employs a team of experts with experience in major oil production and development companies.
However, the specific work Arkenu has carried out for Agoco remains unclear. In 2023, Sarir and Mesla accounted for most of Agoco’s approximately 280,000 barrels per day of output.
Libya remains politically divided between an internationally recognized administration in the west, which has historically controlled oil revenues, and a rival administration in the east, where about three-quarters of the country’s production capacity is located. Agoco operates in the east, while the NOC is based in the west.
