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By Sami Zaptia.
London, 25 June 2018:
The National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced yesterday that its engineers and personnel are back on site at the Ras Lanuf and Sidra oil port terminals conducting initial assessments of the damage caused by the fighting between the Ibrahim Jadran-led forces and the Hafter-led Libyan National Army (LNA).
The NOC said that specialists are currently determining when operations may resume and will update the Libyan people and market in due course.
It also reported that thanks to the tremendous effort of its fire extinguishing teams, the storage tanks that were on fire at the Ras Lanuf farm were successfully extinguished, following what it called ‘‘the ejection of the militia allied with Ibrahim Jadran from the area’’.
This report of the ejection of the Jadran forces seems to confirm what the LNA and its political allies have been reporting since Thursday.
This news of the ejection of Jadran’s forces comes in spite claims by the Jadran forces that they had launched a counter attack and reclaimed their positions. It will be recalled that militias led by Jadran had taken over the Ras Lanuf and Sidra oil installations on 14 June.
The NOC confirmed that despite the severity of the fire damage to storage tanks 2 and 12, tanks 5 and 6 were saved ‘‘thanks to the exemplary work of personnel on site, thus ensuring the continuity of export operations’’.
In a video posted by the NOC, its Oil Crescent Crisis Committee, reporting from the oil crescent, said that all sites were now safe and ready and that operations would resume soon. They also confirmed that the main coastal roads heading east and west were now open.
Oil crescent fighting will lose Libya billions in oil revenues: NOC
NOC evacuates Sidra and Ras Lanuf after fighting erupts in area
