Production at Libya’s El Feel halted, NOC says
A view shows El Feel oil field near Murzuq, Libya, July 6, 2017. Picture taken July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Aidan Lewis.
The Libyan government in Tripoli said in a statement that security forces regained control of the complex
Ayman al-Warfalli, Hani Amara | Reuters News
Production at Libya’s El Feel oilfield was halted while that at Wafa oilfield was partially stopped on Tuesday, with state oil firm NOC saying protesters had stormed the Mellitah oil and gas complex and disrupted operations.
The Libyan government in Tripoli said in a statement that security forces regained control of the complex, a joint venture between NOC and Italy’s Eni, and that gas supplies had resumed to power generation plants.
Mellitah operates El Feel, which has a capacity of between 80,000 bpd and 90,000 bpd under normal circumstances.
Libyan oil output has been subject to repeated closures for various political and technical reasons since the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi.
NOC said it was following with deep concern “serious developments resulting from the storming and closure of the complex” in the early hours of Tuesday.
The oil firm added that the closure caused a severe shortage in fuel and gas supplies required to operate power plants, and a number of generation units have gone out of service.
“The continuation of this situation would increase the risk of instability in the public electricity grid and could lead to more generation units going offline, thereby raising the likelihood of a widespread blackout—or potentially a total grid collapse,” NOC said.
(Reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli and Hani Amara, Writing by Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Louise Heavens)
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