By Libya Herald journalist.
Tunis, 5 March 2015:
Further to the attacks by alleged IS forces on the Bahi and Dahra oilfields . . .[restrict]on Wednesday, Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has announced force majeure at 11 oilfields. It also warned that it could shut down all oil operations.
The NOC said in its statement yesterday that it ‘‘is forced to urgently declare a state force majeure at a number of oilfields’’. The oilfields named are Mabruk, Bahi, Dahra, Juffra, Tibesti, Ghani, Naga, Samah, Beida, Waha, Dafa, and all their stations.
The NOC said that as a politically neutral entity and despite calling on all the official sectors charged with providing protection to the oil locations so that they can continue operating and producing and protecting lives and assets, the authorities have failed to do so.
The increasingly dangerous security situation on a daily basis targeting the Libyan people’s assets and the stealing, vandalizing, and destruction of oilfields as witnessed at Mabruk, Bahi, Dahra and Juffra that were attacked by unknown armed groups, the forces charged with guarding them were able to defend and protect them.
The NOC warned that if the poor security situation continues it will be forced to close all oilfields and oil terminals with all the resulting deficit in state revenues and the direct effects on the lives of Libyans in the form of power cuts as a result of cuts in gas supplies and liquid fuel and shortages in fuel, if the interest of the country are not put first.
The NOC stressed that it is continuing in its legal steps in pursuit of perpetrators and called on all the state authorities to take up their responsibility of protecting oil installation. [/restrict]
