By Sami Zaptia.
London, 2 June 2020:
Libya’s state National Oil Corporation (NOC) said yesterday that Libya’s politically motivated oil closures have cost the country more than US$ 5 bn. Libya’s oilfields and facilities have been closed by forces and tribes aligned to Khalifa Hafter and his Libyan National Army (LNA).
The NOC said US$ 1.7 bnn dollars are losses resulting from the closure of Sharara and El-feel fields. It said that these closures and resulting losses foretell an economic disaster that will bring Libya to its knees as a result of these irresponsible acts.
The NOC said that an armed militia is also preventing its teams from carrying out urgent maintenance on an oil storage tank in the Sharara field. It called on the city of Zintan to lift their social shielding of this militia and not to allow what it called ‘‘a handful of criminals and seekers of self-interest who claim to have a tribal cover that would allow them to tamper with and damage the only source of wealth of the Libyan people’’ .
It called on the city Zintan to assist the security and judicial agencies in arresting the militia and bringing them to justice
