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Libyan Oil Guards Prepare to Take on Islamic State

By Benoît Faucon Oil guards in Libya are getting ready to take on suspected Islamic State militants, their commander said Wednesday, following a third attack on oil fields overnight. In recent weeks, the North African country’s oil industry–once the lifeblood of its economy–has been in the cross hairs of an armed conflict. Colonel Hakim Maazab, who heads the brigade that is in charge of guarding oil fields in central Libya, told The Wall Street Journal that the Dahra oil field, about 500 kilometers southeast of Tripoli, was attacked Tuesday night by suspected Islamic State militants, hours after two other oil facilities were targeted by the same group. Col. Maazab said his brigade had sent reinforcements to the nearby Zella airport and a military aircraft had arrived to assist them. "We will go to Dahra today," he said. A Libyan oil official familiar with the situation in the fields said […]

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U.N. meets rivals in oil-rich Libya

Sign up for our daily Energy Newsletter German energy company Wintershall said it’s using Libyan staff to get operations going again at oil fields. Photo courtesy: Wintershall TRIPOLI, Libya, March 2 (UPI) — Though some oil operations in the country have resumed, the U.N. Support Mission in Libya said it was calling for a peaceful solution to divisive crises. Disputes between rival Libya governments, coupled with increased violence attributed to Islamic State militants, have spilled over into the oil sector. British energy company BP said in a much-watched annual report published last month that long-term production issues may result from the lingering violence. The U.N. Support Mission in Libya said it met with rival leaders to discuss ways to advance political dialogue and cease-fire proposals . "The participants agreed on the principle of a ceasefire and underlined the need to end the bloodshed in Libya and engage in dialogue," […]

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Libya’s Largest Oil Field Shut Down Again on Power Failure

Libya’s largest oil field was shut down again Tuesday after heavy rain led to a power failure, a Libyan oil official said. The Sarir oil field had resumed oil flows on Sunday after repairs were made to a pipeline blown up by militants a week earlier. The field normally pumps 185,000 barrels a day to the eastern Libyan oil port of Hariga. The official estimated that the field would begin pumping again in a few days. Write to Benoît Faucon at [email protected]

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Ties to Islamic State Cited by Group in Libya Attacks

CAIRO — Militants pledging allegiance to the Islamic State claimed responsibility for three car bombs that killed at least 38 people in a town in eastern Libya on Friday in the latest escalation in a surge of violence linked to the group. The attacks, in the town of Qubbah, appeared to be one more turn in a cycle of retaliation that began when the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, released a video last week showing its fighters in western Libya beheading more than a dozen kidnapped Egyptian Christians . The government of Egypt responded with airstrikes on the city of Derna, a hub of Islamist militancy in eastern Libya where another group of fighters has pledged loyalty to the Islamic State. On Friday, the Islamic State branch in Derna claimed responsibility for the latest bombings “in revenge for the bloodshed of Muslims” in the city, according […]

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Multiple Suicide Bombings in Libya Kill at Least 45

TRIPOLI, Libya — Multiple suicide car bombings struck an eastern Libyan town, killing at least 45 people on Friday not far from a main base of the Islamic State group’s Libyan offshoot. The group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it came in retaliation for recent Egyptian airstrikes that avenged the beheading of 21 Christian hostages by Libyan Islamic State militants. The massive bombings rocked the town of Qubba, which is under control of the country’s internationally recognized government and about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Darna — a stronghold of Libya’s Islamic State branch. In a statement posted on social networking sites, the group said two of the "Caliphate’s knights" carried out the bombings, targeting what they described as a Libyan army operations room.

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Islamic State Claims East Libya Bomb Attacks as 33 Reported Dead

(Bloomberg) — Islamic State’s affiliate in Libya claimed responsibility for bomb attacks in the country’s east that left dozens dead, saying they were directed at the commander of a campaign against Islamist forces. The triple car bombing in Qubba, near the base of Libya’s internationally recognized government in Tobruk, killed at least 33 people including four Egyptian laborers, Al Jazeera television reported, citing Ibrahim Khalid, head of a local hospital. The attacks followed airstrikes carried out by Egypt’s military against Islamic State’s stronghold in Libya earlier this week, a response to the beheading of 21 captured Egyptian Christians by the jihadist group. Islamic State said on one of the websites it uses that the attack targeted the headquarters of Khalifa Haftar, a commander based in eastern Libya, who’s conducting a campaign against Islamist militias. He’s one of the local warlords to gain prominence in Libya as central authority in […]

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Pro-Islamic State militants seize Libyan university: residents

CAIRO (Reuters) – Militants claiming loyalty to Islamic State have seized the university in the central Libyan city of Sirte, residents said on Thursday, days after a video showed them staging a convoy parade. Islamist militants have made inroads into parts of the North African oil-producing country, exploiting a power vacuum created by a violent struggle for control between two competing governments. On Monday Egyptian planes struck suspected Islamic State targets in eastern Libya, after the group released a video showing the execution of 21 Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Sirte. On Wednesday Egypt and the official Libyan government asked the United Nations Security Council to lift an arms embargo and help build up the army to tackle the jihadists. "The group took control of the university yesterday," a Sirte resident said, asking not to be named. A picture posted on social media showed an Islamic State flag at the […]

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First Libyan oil exported in a week from Hariga storage

BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) – A tanker has loaded 600,000 barrels of crude from storage at the Libyan port of Hariga, an energy official said on Wednesday, the first vessel to pick up oil for export from the country in more than a week. The official said crude supplies from the Sarir oilfield, which flow to Hariga for export, remained disrupted following a pipeline blast, with repairs and maintenance expected to take a number of days. Libya’s oil exports, on which the North African country’s revenues depend, have collapsed as fighting among factions has split the nation. The shortfall helped raise the price of benchmark Brent oil to a 2015 high of $63 a barrel this week. Hariga is the only operating oil port, though two small offshore platforms can also export around 70,000 to 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude. No oil tankers departed Libya in the previous […]

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Libya’s oil economy at risk, envoy says

Libyan conflict may disrupt prime source of revenue, oil, says U.S. ambassador. UPITarek Alhuony. Internal conflicts in Libya may leave the country without a source of oil revenue in less than two years, the U.S. ambassador to Libya said Tuesday. The fire that resulted from the militant bombing of a pipeline at the Sarir oil field, the largest in Libya, was extinguished during the weekend. Sarir is in the same region as oil fields attacked last week by fighters claiming loyalty to the group calling itself the Islamic State. Libya before NATO forces intervened to protect civilians from attacks by forces loyal to former leader Moammar Gadhafi was producing around 1.2 million barrels of oil per day. In its monthly report for February, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said member-state Libya was producing around 343,000 bpd as of January, a 27 percent decline from December. Sarir was producing […]

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Egypt Launches Airstrike in Libya Against ISIS Branch

CAIRO — Egypt conducted an airstrike against an Islamist stronghold in Libya on Monday in retaliation for the beheading of at least a dozen Egyptian Christians by a local franchise of the Islamic State, in Cairo’s deepest reach yet into the chaos that has engulfed its neighbor. Hinting at possible further action, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt said in a statement that he had convened “a continuous session” of his National Defense Council to monitor events in Libya and to weigh additional measures. But the strike itself, hitting in the Libyan town of Derna at dawn, was a new turn in the breakdown of regional order in the aftermath of the Arab Spring revolts and the Islamic State’s emergence. Nearly three and a half years after the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, two rival coalitions of militias are battling for control over Libya and its vast resources, including […]

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