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Tripoli, 4 May:
The Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOCO) last night began to cut production after the authorities failed to act against . . .[restrict]protestors blockading the Benghazi HQ of Libya’s largest oil company for the last 12 days.
AGOCO, which pumps between 350,000 and 370,000 barrels of oil a day has stopped output of 20,000 b/d from its Sarid and Messla fields, said company spokesman Abdeljalil Mayuf.
“Nothing has happened so far” he said, “ Negotiations with these guys are taking place involving civil society groups and others. But there is no solution on the horizon. We will see if they produce anything.”
Mayuf added that AGOCO would decide today what further production the company would cut.
AGOGO has acted in frustration at the blockade by 50 protestors, some of them armed, which has shut down completely operations out of its headquarters complex in Al Qish. The firm is finding its increasingly difficult to do business since it is shut out from crucial systems and equipment.
The protestors are demanding the government boost transparency on its spending, fire Qaddafi-era officials and make immediate moves to alleviate youth unemployment in Benghazi.
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