Libya Shuts Key Oil Field as Fighting Flares in OPEC State
El-Feel, which produced a daily 73,000 barrels, is operated by a joint venture between Italy’s Eni SpA and state-producer NOC.
(Bloomberg) -- Libya’s state oil company halted output at the El-Feel field amid clashes between fighters loyal to the internationally recognized government in the west of the OPEC nation and those of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar.
“There have been airstrikes at the gates of the El-Feel oil field and inside a housing compound at the field used by NOC personnel,” National Oil Corp. Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said in a statement. Staff are in a safe area and production will remain shuttered until military activity ceases and armed groups pull out, he said.
The spokesman of Haftar’s self-styled army, General Ahmed al-Mismari, said in a statement Wednesday evening that the rival fighters had been expelled from El-Feel, located in the southwest close to Sharara, Libya’s largest oil field. Guards supporting the Tripoli-based government had seized El-Feel from Haftar’s side earlier in the day, according to Osama al-Juwaili, a top military commander in western Libya.
El-Feel, which produced a daily 73,000 barrels, is operated by a joint venture between Italy’s Eni SpA and state-producer NOC. Libya, which has Africa’s largest proven oil reserves and relies on crude for most of its revenue, has been roiled by years of violence in the wake of the 2011 NATO-backed overthrow of Muammar al-Qaddafi.
Fighters supporting the internationally recognized government’s prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, have been planning an offensive for months to retake stretches of the south seized by Haftar earlier this year. Haftar’s push for the capital, which began in April and has received support from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russian mercenaries, has stalled on the outskirts with more than 1,000 people killed in the fighting.
Haftar’s Libyan National Army accuses al-Sarraj’s administration of squandering public finances and harboring extremists, claims it rejects, pointing to collaboration on anti-terrorism issues with Western nations.
--With assistance from Hatem Mohareb.
To contact the reporters on this story: Salma El Wardany in Cairo at selwardany@bloomberg.net;Samer Khalil Al-Atrush in Tunis at skhalilalatr@bloomberg.net;Mohammed Abdusamee in Tripoli at mabdusamee@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nayla Razzouk at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net, Michael Gunn
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