Category: Libya

TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – All crude flows to Libya’s Zueitina port have stopped after protesters demanding jobs blocked a pipeline, forcing the closure of several eastern oilfields, oil officials said on Tuesday. State oil firm NOC confirmed the port closure, reported by Reuters on Monday, but did not specify the impact on production. The closure should lower oil output to as low as 400,000 barrels a day, according to estimates based on previous production figures. "The protesters closed the pipeline to the port," Mohamed El Harari, spokesman for state oil firm NOC, said. He said that several oilfields in eastern Libya would have to close. "This will have a big impact on oil production," he said, without giving a figure. A port official said the security situation at the terminal was normal, adding that the port would technically stay open. Libyan oil ports and oilfields regularly have to shut […]

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Exports from Libya’s 70,000 b/d capacity Zueitina oil export facility are likely to slip after protesters blocked a pipeline feeding the port, sources said Tuesday. The latest wave of civil unrest in Libya — this time said to be workers demanding improved pay and conditions at the port — could see the North African country’s oil exports drop further from already significantly reduced levels. Production in Libya has fallen to an estimated 400,000 b/d with exports likely to be only half that after output was shut in at the major Elephant (El Feel) field in late April, adding to the ongoing disruption elsewhere in the country. At Zueitina, loadings continue from stockpiles, one trading source said, but that could not continue indefinitely. Article continues below… "Exports from stock are still going on [but] if the unrest remains, Zueitina will be [exporting] less," the source said. Another said the disruption […]

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TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Protesters demanding state jobs have shut down the eastern Libyan oil export port of Zueitina, a port engineer said on Monday. No more information was immediately available. Libyan oil ports and oilfields regularly have to shut down due to protesters seizing them or armed groups fighting for control of the facilities. The protesters were complaining they had not been hired by the state as promised by a previous oil minister, said the engineer, asking not to be named. "They closed a pipeline leading to the port," he said. Zueitina is one of the few Libyan ports still exporting oil as the largest have closed due to fighting or blocked oilfields connected to them, part of turmoil gripping the North African country four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi. Zueitina port, located near the main eastern city of Benghazi, has closed several times since 2011 due […]

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BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – Protesters have ended a strike at state-run Sirte Oil Co in eastern Libyan port of Brega which had forced the closure of the Irda gas field, a company spokesman said on Sunday. "We have reached an agreement with the protesters to end their strike," the spokesman said. The protesters had demanded jobs at the oil firm and had prevented staff from working at the company’s headquarters. It was not immediately clear whether the Irda field had resumed work. (Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli; writing by Ulf Laessing ; editing by Jason Neely )

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TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – A strike by Libyan security guards over salary payments has forced the closure of the western El Feel oilfield, a spokesman for state oil firm NOC said on Sunday. On Saturday, a field engineer told Reuters the OPEC producer had closed the field, without citing a reason. El Feel is operated by a joint venture owned by NOC and Italy’s Eni. "The field’s security guards are on strike because they complain about a delay of their salary payments," said Mohamed El Harari, a spokesman for NOC. "NOC paid the salaries to the security forces, but they haven’t paid the guards yet," he said. Libya this year had managed to restart El Feel, which analysts say produced about 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). Libya had to shut the field late last year when a group in the Zintan region, which opposes a self-declared government in Tripoli, […]

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CAIRO/BENGHAZI (Reuters) – Libya’s official government has so far failed to sell oil on its own via an account and middlemen in Dubai, as customers continue to buy crude directly from a state oil firm under the control of a rival government, oil sources said. Libya’s internationally recognised Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni said this month that oil sales would be routed though a Dubai bank account belonging to a new state oil company reporting to his government in the east. His government wants to get hold of vital oil revenue as it fights the rival government controlling the capital Tripoli, in the west, for power and territory four years after the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi. The United Arab Emirates is one of the biggest political allies of Thinni. Several oil shipments from the eastern Hariga and Zueitina ports controlled by forces loyal to Thinni have left since his announcement, […]

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Photo Pro-government forces during clashes with  rebels in Benghazi, Libya, this month. Credit Reuters MISURATA, Libya — Libyans have puzzled for four years over what might arrest their country’s disintegration. Feuding factions have consistently reached for guns instead of compromises in their battle to fill the vacuum left by the fall of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi , ultimately breaking the country into two warring coalitions of militias and city-states. Leaders on both sides vowed that Libya ’s only hope was their own military victory. But now a growing number of politicians on both sides of the conflict say that the dual threats from colonies of the Islamic State and a looming collapse of the economy may finally jolt Libya out of that spiral. In a series of interviews in five Libyan cities on both sides of the fight, political leaders were for the first time trying in earnest to reverse […]

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Gunmen shot at the South Korean embassy from a passing car A bomb has exploded at the gates of the Moroccan embassy in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, security officials say, hours after two people were shot dead outside South Korea’s embassy. There was some damage to cars nearby, but no reports of injuries. The embassy is not currently operational. On Sunday, gunmen opened fire from a passing car on a security post at the South Korean embassy. The militant group Islamic State said it carried out that attack. The device at the Moroccan embassy in the Bin Ashour area of Tripoli was left in a bag at the gate. The blast in the early hours on Monday morning was "very strong, and the house was shaking for few seconds," a witness told the AFP news agency. It was unclear whether there was anyone in the embassy at the time […]

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ENLARGE Fighters from the Libya Dawn militia group after securing the perimeter of the Mellitah Oil & Gas terminal on the outskirts of Zwara in western Libya on Jan. 6. Photo: MAHMUD TURKIA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES Italian energy giant Eni SpA has emerged in recent weeks as the only international oil company still pumping near capacity in war-torn Libya, helped by protection from militias and tribes secured by its local partners. Libya’s security risks have crippled the efforts of rival oil companies such as Total SA of France, Repsol SA of Spain and Marathon Oil of the U.S., which have said they have suspended production onshore in the North African country. The dangers have intensified in the past month with the rise of terrorist network Islamic State in Libya, a new risk in a nation that fractured after the 2011 ouster and death of dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Some of the […]

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Libya’s elected government said it is opening an overseas bank account for crude revenue to bypass rival Islamist authorities in the capital, adding uncertainty to the North African country’s efforts to boost exports. “This measure is meant to ensure liquidity for the government without going through the central bank in Tripoli,” Fathallah Al-Suhaiti, chairman of the elected parliament’s national security and defense committee, said Tuesday by phone from Tobruk in eastern Libya. Libya, holder of Africa’s largest oil reserves, has been split since last year when a coalition of Islamist militias captured Tripoli, forcing the elected government to move to the eastern region. The conflict has damaged or shut oil fields, pipelines and ports, reducing the nation’s crude output to no more than 600,000 barrels a day. Libya pumped almost 1.6 million barrels before the 2011 rebellion that ended Muammar Qaddafi’s 42-year rule. The elected and internationally recognized government […]

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