Libya's largest refinery at Ras Lanuf will not restart in early July as planned, but a petrochemical unit, which does not run on crude oil, will resume operations, a senior National Oil Corporation (NOC) official told Reuters on Friday.

Ras Lanuf, which can process 220,000 barrels of oil per day(bpd), accounts for well over half of Libya's oil refining capacity and is an important source of refined oil products in the Mediterranean region.

There was talk among the refinery's customers in Europe that the plant would resume operating in the first week of July after meetings with NOC officials held earlier this month.