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Statoil restarts Algerian gas work after terror attack

Norwegian energy company Statoil said it was ready to return to work in Algeria more than a year after terrorists stormed a gas facility there. Terrorists sympathetic with al-Qaida stormed the country’s In Amenas natural gas facility in January 2013, leaving 38 civilians and 29 militants dead. Statoil and its joint venture partners said they’re ready to resume ordinary operations at the plant after implementing new security measures at the facility. "The decision to resume ordinary operations at In Amenas is the result of a thorough and stepwise process of identifying necessary security measures, implementing them and validating that they are in place and operational," Lars Christian Bacher, executive vice president for production at Statoil, said in a statement Monday. In Amenas has a production capacity of approximately 315 million cubic feet of natural gas per year. Algeria’s state-run energy company Sonatrach operates the facility alongside British energy company […]

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Libyan Militias Seize Control Of Capital As Chaos Rises

CAIRO — The government of Libya said Monday that it had lost control of its ministries to a coalition of militias that had taken over the capital, Tripoli, in another milestone in the disintegration of the state. “The government reiterates that these buildings and the public headquarters are not safe and inaccessible, because they are under the control of armed men,” the government said in a statement. It was issued from the eastern city of Tobruk, where the recently elected Parliament has convened in territory controlled by a renegade general who has tried to stage a coup d’état. The statement indicated the emergence of two rival centers of government — one in Tripoli and the other in Tobruk — each all but powerless. Over the last two months, the fractious militias that have dominated the country since the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi three years ago — variously local, […]

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Oil-Field Flows to Libya’s Key Port Resume Despite Conflict

A view of the anchorage at the Es Sider export terminal in Ras Lanuf, west of Benghazi in Libya. Reuters Libya’s largest oil port Es Sider is now receiving supplies from oil fields after the terminal resumed exports despite intense fighting in the capital of Tripoli. An oil official in Tripoli said late Thursday that the Waha Oil Co. was supplying 22,000 barrels a day to the Es Sider terminal in eastern Libya, after oil in storage at the port started to be shipped last week, ending a one-year stoppage. The Waha Oil Co. is a partnership between Libya’s National Oil Co. and U.S. companies Marathon Oil Corp. , Hess Corp. and ConocoPhillips . It had previously been producing about 3,000 barrels a day used for maintenance and small supplies to the neighboring Brega oil terminal, the official said. But all Waha Oil Co.’s oil flows have now been […]

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Libya’s Acting Oil Minister Says He Has Been Reinstated

By Benoit Faucon Libya’s government has cancelled a decision to dismiss its acting oil minister, the official himself and the National Oil Co.’s Facebook page said Friday. The news comes amid mounting political confusion in Libya after a militia that took control of Tripoli’s airport disputed the legitimacy of an interim government now based in the Eastern city of Tobruk. Omar Shakmak, Libya’s deputy oil minister, who was acting as the country’s most senior oil official, said last week he was resigning at the request of Libya’s interim prime minister Abdullah al-Thani. Libyan oil officials said at the time he had been replaced by NOC’s head Mustafa Sanalla on a temporary basis. But Mr. Shakmak, who has headed the oil ministry as a caretaker since the departure of Libya’s former oil minister Abdelbari el-Arousi in January, said he had been asked to return to his position by Mr. al-Thani. […]

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Libya crisis: US ‘caught off-guard’ by air strikes

Smoke rises from fighting at Tripoli airport. 23 Aug 2014 Life has come to a standstill in Tripoli after weeks of fighting Continue reading the main story US officials say Egypt and the UAE were behind air strikes in Libya last week that targeted Islamist militia. A senior US official told the BBC that Washington was not consulted about the attacks and was "caught off-guard". The air strikes on militia positions around Tripoli’s international airport were reportedly carried out by Emirati fighter jets using bases in Egypt. The Egyptian authorities have denied involvement, and there has been no direct comment from the UAE. The strikes failed to stop militias from Misrata and other cities, which operate under the banner Libya Dawn and include some Islamist groups, seizing the airport from a militia from Zintan that had controlled it since 2011. Damaged plane at Tripoli airport. 25 Aug 2014 Planes […]

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Arab Nations Strike in Libya, Surprising U.S.

CAIRO — Twice in the last seven days, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have secretly launched airstrikes against Islamist-allied militias battling for control of Tripoli, Libya, four senior American officials said, in a major escalation of a regional power struggle set off by Arab Spring revolts. The United States, the officials said, was caught by surprise: Egypt and the Emirates, both close allies and military partners, acted without informing Washington, leaving the Obama administration on the sidelines. Egyptian officials explicitly denied to American diplomats that their military played any role in the operation, the officials said, in what appeared a new blow to already strained relations between Washington and Cairo. The strikes in Tripoli are another salvo in a power struggle defined by Arab autocrats battling Islamist movements seeking to overturn the old order. Since the military ouster of the Islamist president in Egypt last year, the new […]

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Hero of Libya’s revolution wages war on government

Salah Badi has a reputation for resorting to other means when politics do not go his way. A hero of the 2011 uprising against Muammer Gaddafi and head of a militia affiliated with the coastal city of Misurata, the former member of parliament is now waging war in the capital, Tripoli, as he tries to maintain the dominance of Islamists – and his home town – in the face of overwhelming voter opposition to his agenda in June 25 general elections. More On this topic IN Middle Eastern Politics & Society “He reflects a certain component of Libyan politicians who see themselves as still fighting out the revolution,” said Claudia Gazzini, Libya researcher for the International Crisis Group. “They don’t care that they’re not popular. They see themselves as righteous defenders of Libya and saviours of a Libya that is gradually returning into the hands of the former regime.” […]

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Libya Officials Seek Help as Rifts Deepen Amid Militia Violence

Libya ’s outgoing parliament defied its successor by naming an alternative premier, while government officials called for international help amid growing violence between rival militias. The General National Congress, the legislature that has refused to disband even after a new one was elected in June, invited Omar El-Hassi to form a salvation government during a meeting yesterday in the capital, Tripoli. The congress, where Islamists are among the strongest factions, also announced a “public mobilization” in all institutions and the highest level of security alert, the official news agency Lana said. The newly elected parliament has been meeting in the east of the country instead of Tripoli, the seat of the outgoing legislature. El-Hassi was nominated as a rival to Prime Minister Abdullah Theni, whose house was set ablaze by militia fighters yesterday, according to Al-Arabiya television. The political schisms and spread of violence highlight the lack of central […]

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Rockets Target Lifeline Airport in Eastern Libya

Plumes of black smoke can be seen after clashes between the Benghazi Revolutionaries Shura Council and fighters of renegade general Khalifa Haftar, as they each attempt to seize control of the airport from the council in Benghazi, Libya, Aug. 23, 2014. Reuters August 25, 2014 9:32 AM BENGHAZI, LIBYA— Attackers fired rockets at eastern Libya’s Labraq airport on Monday, its director said, targeting one of the oil producer’s few functioning air hubs as violence between armed groups escalates. The airport east of the city of Benghazi has become a major gateway into Libya since Egypt and Tunisia canceled almost all flights to the capital Tripoli and the west of the country last week, citing security reasons. The North African nation has descended into anarchy with a weak government unable to control fighters, who helped topple strongman Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 but now vie for control of territory and resources. […]

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Libya Says Waha Oil Field Resumes Operations

LONDON—Libya said Monday normal operations had resumed at the giant Waha oil field as the country’s output jumps in contrast with mounting violence in urban centers. The latest step in Libya’s oil recovery contrasts with claims by an Islamist militia to have taken over of Tripoli’s airport over the weekend. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Mohamed el-Harari, spokesman for the state-owned National Oil Co., said operations had resumed earlier Monday at Eastern Libya’s Waha oil field, paving the way for a return to exported production later this week. Waha, which normally produces 160,000 barrels a day, supplies crude to the Es Sider terminal, which restarted exports using stored oil last week after a year-long interruption. The Waha field, which is partly owned by U.S. companies ConocoPhillips , Hess Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. , has kept producing small quantities of oil for its own maintenance, according to an […]

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