beirut: Libya’s major El Sharara oilfield has shut down production after an armed group seized it, oil ministry sources said yesterday. A worker at the large southern field said there was a shooting, but more details were not immediately available.
The field was producing around 200,000 barrels per day before the shutdown, the sources said.
The area near the field, which is deep in Libya’s lawless south, has been the scene of fighting between rival tribes. Protesters have closed the field twice in the past 12 months to press authorities into accepting their financial and political demands.
The rapid return of Libyan crude oil to the market in recent months has added to a glut of crude that has driven down prices by more than 25 percent since June, though growing political instability has increased uncertainty over the country’s levels of production and supply.
Western powers worry that Libya is heading toward civil war as authorities are too weak to control former rebels who helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but now defy state authority to grab power and a share of oil revenues.
Libya is divided between rival tribes and political factions, with two governments vying for legitimacy since an armed group from the western city of Misrata seized Tripoli in August, forcing the internationally recognized Prime Minister Abdullah Al Thinni to move east.
Reuters
