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 The Tripoli authorities asked the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday
to blacklist the India-flagged tanker Distya Ameya, which left the
eastern Libyan port of Hariga overnight carrying oil they said could
not be lawfully sold.
The eastern government has set up its own National Oil Corporation
(NOC) to act in parallel to the Tripoli-based NOC that is recognized
internationally as the only legitimate seller of Libyan oil.
The tanker departed Hariga carrying 650,000 barrels of crude late on
Monday bound for Malta, said Mohamed al-Manfi, a spokesman for the
eastern NOC.
Maltese national TV said the ship was in international waters near
Malta. The island's Port Directorate said the tanker was not
authorized to dock there and requests would be refused.
The ship last reported its position through the publicly available
AIS tracking system earlier on Tuesday as still in Libyan waters.
 Libya's economy depends almost exclusively on oil export revenue and
the fight over who controls those funds has driven chronic
instability and civil war since long-serving autocrat Gaddafi was
toppled and killed by Western-backed rebels in 2011.
Parallel parliaments and governments have operated in Tripoli and
the east since 2014. Much of the country is in the hands of dozens
of armed groups loyal to one or other government, while small areas
are controlled by Islamic State fighters.
Political division, labor disputes and security threats have reduced
Libya's oil output to less than a quarter of the 1.6 million barrels
per day produced before the uprising.
A U.N.-backed unity government, which arrived in the capital last
month, includes figures from across Libya's divides but has not yet
been fully accepted by either of the two loose alliances fighting
for power since 2014.
UN RESOLUTIONS
It was not immediately clear how the eastern NOC could conduct a
sale given the international opposition. One possibility might be to
attempt a ship-to-ship transfer in international waters.
"We are concerned about purchases of Libyan oil outside of
legitimate channels," U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby
said on Tuesday, emphasizing that all sales should go through the
Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation.
 The United States has stopped unauthorized sales of Libyan oil in
the past, sending special forces in 2014 to board a tanker off
Cyprus loaded with crude shipped by a group pressing for more
autonomy in eastern Libya. The U.S. troops forced that ship to
return. Another senior U.S. official declined to be drawn on whether
Washington might undertake a similar operation, saying it would
"look at all appropriate mechanisms to address the situation."
If the shipment went through, it could spark copycat sales that
would further shrink the unity government's revenues.
"That's very bad for Libya and very threatening, potentially, to the
viability of any Libyan government," the second U.S. official said
on condition of anonymity.
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Among U.S. concerns are that such oil sales could fund arms
purchases by those resisting the unity government's authority.
The official said the United States and other nations could impose
sanctions on those found to violate U.N. Security Council
resolutions on Libya, though he did not provide details.
The eastern NOC has long been trying to sell its own oil, but until
now those efforts have been blocked by the NOC in Tripoli, with the
support of Western countries.
The NOC in Tripoli says any sale by its eastern rival would breach
U.N. Security Council resolutions and put the future of Libya's
economy at risk.
NOC Tripoli officials said on Tuesday they had notified the United
Nations, countries with naval forces in the Mediterranean and a
unity government now working in Tripoli that the shipment had not
been authorized and should be stopped.
"We have done our job and we are waiting for them to do theirs,"
said spokesman Mohamed al-Harari.
The NOC in Tripoli has continued to run oil production throughout
the crisis that followed Gaddafi's fall, with the funds paying state
salaries across Libya, including many of the rival armed groups,
which have generally been granted official status.
The Tripoli NOC has retained international backing, and says it is
working to plan future oil sales with the new U.N.-backed unity
government.
News of the eastern NOC's effort to export its first shipment of oil
emerged late last week, when the NOC in Tripoli said it had
prevented port workers from loading oil onto the Distya Ameya.
It said the shipment had been ordered for a company called DSA
Consultancy FZC, registered in the United Arab Emirates.
(Additional reporting by Ahmad Gaddar and Libby George in London,
Chris Scicluna in Valletta and Aidan Lewis in Tunis; Writing by
Aidan Lewis; Editing by James Dalgleish and Richard Chang)
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