Libya warns of ‘catastrophic’ fallout if protest shuts oilfield

Libya’s El Sharara oilfield, pictured in this file photo, can produce 315,000 barrels a day. Reuters

Reuters BENGHAZI: Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) warned on Sunday of “catastrophic consequences” if production at the El Sharara oilfield is brought to a complete halt by a tribal protest.
Should the 315,000 barrel-a-day field shut down, it would take a long time to bring it back on stream and production from another field would also be affected, the state oil firm said.
“Shutting down production at the El Sharara field will have catastrophic, long-term consequences. It would take a long time to resume production because of the sabotage and theft that are likely to happen,” NOC said in a statement.
Tribesmen stormed into the field premises on Saturday, saying their southern Fezzan region had suffered decades of neglect and demanding that the revenue from the oil produced at local fields be used to fund development projects.
NOC said that the storage tanks at the field would be completely full within hours of its statement, forcing the field to shut down as it cannot pump the crude out to processing facilities.
The company described the protesters as “criminals” because they had stopped the pumps from functioning.
“The company would then have to implement an emergency plan to evacuate the staff from the field,” it said in a statement.
If El Sharara stops operating, production at the El Feel oilfield, also in southern Libya, would also stop because El Sharara supplies it with power and the supply to the Zawiya refinery on the coast would also be interrupted, it said.
NOC accused security guards on Saturday of having facilitated the “occupation” of the field.
The tribesmen call themselves the Fezzan Anger Movement. Their spokesman, Mohamed Maighal, said that they would allow crude oil already extracted to be put into storage tanks, but would then force production to be stopped.
NOC has previously tried to avert such action through talks.