PFG denies announcement of oilfield evacuations, but Samah closed

By Ayman Amzein.

Benghazi, 10 April 2016:

Reports that the Ajdabiya-based central area Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG ) had announced that three oilfields . . .[restrict]in the Sirte basin had been evacuated following an attack on an oilfield a week ago by Islamic State (IS) forces have been denied by it.

A PFG official told the Libya Herald that its spokesman, Ali Al-Hassi, had made no such statement and that it had come from the Benghazi office of the National Oil Corproration (NOC).

It was reported that staff had been withdrawn from three fields in the Marada area – Beida run by AGOCO, Samah (Waha Oil) and Tibesti (Harouge Oil) – following a reported attack on Qarat Jahanam west of Marada in which two people were said to have been killed. Another report put the figure at five dead and seven wounded.

There had been a partial evacuation, however, the PFG official said, but it had not involved many people.

According to an NOC official in Benghazi, though, Waha Oil’s Samah field had been completely evacuated and there were partial evacuations at the Beida and Tebesti fields.

Last year IS claimed control of all three fields. [/restrict]