Libya’s National Oil Corp. (NOC) suspended operations and declared a state of force majeure at the Zouetina terminal, al-Charara field, and several other sites due to political unrest.
In February, the parliament sitting in Tobruk in eastern Libya appointed Fathi Bachagha the new head of government. Current prime minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah, however, refuses to hand over power before elections are held. The groups blocking the oil sites are demanding revenue distributions and transfer of executive power to Mr. Bachagha.
After the forced closure Sunday of al-Fil field (south), the Zouetina terminal (east), Mellitah (northwest), al-Sarrir (east), and Al Khaleej (east) stopped operations. Production at Abu Al-Tifl (east), al-Intissar (east), and al-Nakhla (east) fields also ceased on Sunday, as did gas production at plants affiliated to these sites and at the port of Zouetina.
Al-Charara is about 900 km south of Tripoli and normally produces 315,000 b/d out of total national production of more than 1.2 million b/d. It is the main supplier of the Zaouia refinery and is managed by Akakus, a joint venture between NOC, Repsol SA, TotalEnergies SE, OMV Group, and Equinor ASA.
Alex Procyk | Upstream Editor
Alex Procyk is Upstream Editor at Oil & Gas Journal. He has also served as a principal technical professional at Halliburton and as a completion engineer at ConocoPhillips. He holds a BS in chemistry (1987) from Kent State University and a PhD in chemistry (1992) from Carnegie Mellon University. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE).