The head of the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) Tuesday said Sharara oil field, the country’s largest with a production capacity of 340,000 barrels per day, will remain shut down until rebels evacuate the oil facility they have been holding since December. “The armed group attempting to hold NOC and Libya’s economic recovery to ransom must leave the field before NOC will consider restarting production,” NOC Chairman Mustafa Sanalla was quoted by Reuters as saying in London. A group of armed men protesting against life hardship in the region high-jacked the oil field, in December. The oil field has seen then been under force majeure. “It is my concern that a sequence of events has been set in motion with unknowable consequences for Libya, and NOC,” he said.

Source: The North Africa Journal January 30, 2019 14:15 UTC