By Libya Herald reporters.
Beida, 4 April 2015:
The east of . . .[restrict]the country faces more blackouts because Sirte Oil company operations have been disrupted by demonstrators demanding the co gives them work.
Blockades of offices and facilities over the last five days have finally forced the company to shut down operations, a company official told the Libya Herald. He described the situation as serious. Yet it seems there seems little chance of the demonstrators succeeding.
“We notified the National Oil Corporation NOC of this problem and told them that we simply cannot take on anymore employees” said the official.
The Sirte company supplies gas to the 1,200 Megawatt North Benghazi power station as well as providing feedstock for the Zuetina refinery.
Blockades and protests by locals demanding jobs in the oil industry have become common since the revolution. The Zuetina refinery has been a regular victim.
A year ago, a foreign oil executive told this newspaper that while it was understandable that young people should want to work on local oil projects, they rarely had the training and background to be of operational use. Producing fields and transmission lines were already grossly over-manned by staff who had the correct qualifications. Taking on people with no obvious skills boosted costs for no productivity gain. [/restrict]
