Sharara field declares force majeure after new shutdown

The armed group, led by Mohamed Khalifa, stormed the field late on Monday and instructed employees at gunpoint to shut it early on Tuesday, the NOC said, days after the field had restarted following another blockade.

Sharara, one of Libya’s largest production areas, has regularly been a target since Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in an uprising in 2011 that has split the North African country and led to years of political chaos and violence.

Khalifa heads one of the forces affiliated with Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) that blockaded most of Libya’s oil in January. His forces have been retreating after their campaign to capture the capital, Tripoli, fell apart.

Production at Sharara, which previously had output of around 300 000 bpd, had been resuming gradually since Saturday after the reopening of a pipeline valve that had been closed since January due to the earlier blockade.

Sharara field had not been itself been blockaded in the previous incident, although NOC said an armed militia had prevented maintenance on a 16 000-bbl tank, which collapsed as a result.

NOC said the latest shutdown would cause further technical damage.

NOC runs Sharara in a joint venture with Repsol, Total, OMV and Equinor.

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