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By Sami Zaptia.
London 18 December 2018:
Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) declared a state of force majeure on operations at its Sharara oil field yesterday.
This, follows on from the NOC declaring force majeure on 9 December on exports from Zawiya of crude oil produced at Sharara.
The NOC stated that oil production will now only restart at Sharara after “alternative security arrangements” are put in place.
“Production at Sharara was forcibly shut down by an armed group – Battalion 30 and its civilian support company- that claimed to be providing security at the field, but which threatened violence against NOC employees”.
“Clearly we cannot return to the security situation we were in before the field was shut,” NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla said.
The shutting down of the Sharara oilfield, situated in the south of Libya, has led to much debate by Libyans about the neglected south of the country.
The discussion continues the decades-old debate on the justice of most of Libyan oil wealth generated from oilfields located in the south being spent in coastal urban centres – at the expense of Libyans in the south.
There have been claims and counter-claims as to whether and to what extent people from the neglected south have the right to demonstrate and engage in civil disobedience.
There has also been debate as to whether, in view of total neglect by the north, the south have a legitimate right to use some force to voice their repeatedly ignored legitimate grievances.
The civil disobedience movement associated with expressing the grievances of the south, “Fezzan Anger/Rage Movement” has been accused by the NOC’s Sanalla of being behind the militia Battalion 30 and of using used force to halt oil production at Sharara.
Despite the contradictory north-south Libyan narratives as to what happened at the Sharara oilfield, the Attorney General’s Office in Tripoli has agreed with the NOC’s narrative and has been persuaded to issue an arrest warrant for the leader of the Fezzan Anger Movement for inciting or being complicit in the use of force.
Fezzan Anger have denied this, claiming they are using ĺegitimate civil disobedience methods to air legitimate grievances.
