Tripoli, 3 September 2013:
Zawia refinery reopened this morning, after injured locals demanding the government pay for their medical treatment abroad had . . .[restrict]closed the facility last night.
The injured former revolutionaries brought the terminal to a halt reportedly by heaping lorry loads of sand outside the gates. The news sparked fresh rounds of petrol panic buying in Tripoli today.
Negotiations, which included members of the local council, were successful said the spokesman for the refinery, Mohammed Othman. It is not known, however, what agreements were reached.
“Everything is okay now. The refinery is working normally and the flow of crude entering the refinery is also normal,” said Othman.
However, another employee at the refinery, told the Libya Herald there was a shortage of oil coming into the refinery because people from Zintan were blocking the pipeline. He added that this was not necessarily a problem because petrol imports were sufficient.
This was confirmed by Othman, who said: “Even if the refinery is not producing, we import refined product, so there is no reason for people to panic about petrol supplies.”
There were four ships at the port this afternoon, understood to be unloading fuel. [/restrict]
