London (Platts)--1Mar2011/720 am EST/1220 GMT
Despite the escalating tension in Libya and stormy weather hampering operations at various key ports in the country, at least one port at Marsa el-Brega was reported open with an Aframax berthed and loading crude Tuesday. "There is the Aframax tanker, the St Nicholas, that berthed Monday, and she is expected to completed loading around 02:00 local time Wednesday [midnight Tuesday GMT] and then set sail four hours later," said one source close to a shipowner. Bad weather first started to affect operations at key Libyan ports last Thursday when many ports, including Es Sider, Ras Lanuf, Brega and Zawia were reported closed. Since then, some ports have re-opened for business, but details are unclear. "Communication is difficult and we hear some ports closed due to the weather," said a shipbroker. "Over the last few days, some ports in Libya were closed due to bad weather, today I think the bad weather is extended over a large area in the Mediterranean," said another broker.--Rob Sheridan, robert_sheridan@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Oilgram News. See more information at http://bit.ly/OilgramNews