By Jamal Adel.
Tripoli, 29 March 2014:
Gas supplies from the Wafa field have again been disrupted five weeks after an . . .[restrict]earlier pipeline blockage ended.
“Yesterday morning we recorded a stoppage normally caused by tuning down a tap,” NOC spokesman Mohammed Al-Harari told the Libya Herald. “We don’t know who is behind the blockade, or why,” he said.
Other reports, however, claim that those responsible this time are ZIntani Petroleum Facilities Guards at the pipeline’s valve station No. 5 near Derj.
The same valve was turned off in mid-February by “young Zintanis” according to reliable sources both in Zintan itself and at the Mellitah gas complex on the coast where the gas is treated.
The disruption is likely to affect electricity production at the gas-fired Ruwais power station in the Jebel Nafusa. Additionally, protestors from nearby Hawamid have been demonstrating at the station complaining of neglect and have threatened to the shut down the Ruwais power station as of Monday if their grievances are not addressed.
This week GECOL warned that there could be power cuts in Tripoli because of proser production problems. [/restrict]