A months-long blockade by armed protesters of vital oil terminals in east Libya will be lifted on December 15, a tribal chief announced on Tuesday. "We expect that the export of crude from the oil terminals will resume from December 15," said Saleh al-Ateiwich, head of the powerful Al-Magharba tribe which launched the blockade in July in support of its demands for regional autonomy. These protests as well as blockades of fuel deliveries by the Berber minority have seen Libya's oil output plunge to about 250,000 barrels per day from normal levels of nearly 1.5 million bpd.