By Seraj Essul and Tom Westcott.
Tripoli, 26 April 2014:
Zueitina oil port is still under federalist control, the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) . . .[restrict]tasked with taking back the occupied oil terminal has confirmed.
“There are technical obstacles preventing us from taking control of the port,” PFG spokesperson Walid Hassan told the Libya Herald. He added that a special force made up of members of the PFG had been created and would take control of the port in the next few days. This was exactly what it said six days ago but there has clearly been no progress.
It echoed what the government said on Thursday, that “technical matters” to do with pumps and machinery were delaying the reopening of the port which, it said, was in the process of being reopened.
However, delays seem to be less to do with the port itself and more to do with the negotiations.
“If there are any technical problems, these are in the negotiations, not at the port,” a senior Zueitina employee said last night. “If an oil tanker docked at the port now, even if we did not have electricity, we would be able to load it. All the tanks are full and there are no problems inside the port at all.”
On Thursday the so-called ‘government of Cyrenaica’ accused the government of not sticking to its side of the deal and threatened to take action if this continued. [/restrict]
