Autonomy group in east Libya forms oil firm in challenge to Tripoli

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - An autonomy movement in eastern Libya that has seized several oil ports said on Sunday it had unilaterally formed a regional oil firm in a direct challenge to the central government in Tripoli. The firm would be temporarily based in Tobruk in the far east, where protesters have seized an oil port and on Friday blocked a government-chartered tanker from loading oil, leaders of the group told a televised news conference in the eastern town of Ajdabiya. (Reporting by Feras Bosalum and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Kevin Liffey)