Libya shuts down two eastern oilfields for security reasons: official
By Ayman al-Warfalli BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libya has shut down two eastern oil fields due to security reasons following militant attacks on oil operations in the North African country, an oil official said on Tuesday. Only the fields called 103A and 103B were still operating, the official said, asking not to be named. Staff had been evacuated from the Zella and Fida fields which are located to the east of oilfields which have been attacked recently by militants. State-run National Oil Corp (NOC) had declared force majeure for eleven fields last week due to the attacks. He gave no production figures for the state company based west of Benghazi. A Liberia-flagged tanker which had arrived from the Suez Canal was currently lifting crude at Zueitina port, the official said. The emergence of militants aligned with Islamic State have further hit Libya's energy sector, already battered by fighting between rival factions and strikes. Up to 10 foreign workers are missing after an attack on the al-Ghani oilfield by militants loyal to Islamic State last week. Militants have also stormed and damaged several oilfields around al-Ghani, forcing the government to declare force majeure, pull out workers and shut down production at 11 oilfields in the central Sirte basin. The Zueitina fields now closed are not included in that count. The tanker loading at Zueitina mark only the second time oil has been loaded at the port since April 2014 when a group campaigning for eastern autonomy ended a blockage. Strikes and technical delays have hampered efforts to export since. NOC has not published a national production figure, which oil insiders put at about 400,000 bpd a day, a fraction of the up to 1.6 million bpd Libya pumped prior to the 2011 uprising which toppled leader Muammar Gaddafi. Major oilfields have stopped working due to the struggle between the recognized government in the east and a rival administration that took control of the capital Tripoli in August 2014. Libya's two biggest oil ports, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, stopped working in December due to fighting between rival factions. (Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli and Feras Bosalum; Writing by Ulf Laessing; editing by Susan Thomas and Louise Heavens)
