Protest forces Libya’s national oil firm to close Al-Fil field

Tripoli, April 18 - Neftegaz.RU. According to Aljazeera, Libya’s NOC has announced the suspension of production at a major oil field in the country’s south, declaring a «force majeure» due to a protest at the site.

Located some 750 km southwest of Tripoli, the Al-Fil field is jointly managed by the NOC and Italian energy giant ENI and produces about 70,000 barrels of oil per day.
The field was already forced to close temporarily in early March when an armed group shut down valves delivering crude.

The NOC said in a post to Facebook:

• On Saturday… the Al-Fil field was subjected to arbitrary closure attempts, due to the entry of a group of individuals and the prevention of the field’s workers from continuing production
• The field was shut down on Sunday, marking the 2^nd closure in a matter of weeks and making it impossible for the NOC to implement its contractual obligations

Declaring force majeure is a legal move that allows involved parties to free themselves from contractual obligations when factors beyond control, such as fighting or natural disasters, make meeting those obligations impossible.

According to Libya’s state news agency, the closure comes after an unidentified group entered the site and declared that they were halting production «until a government appointed by parliament takes office in the capital».

Sunday’s forced closure at the Al-Fil oil field comes as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has rattled markets worldwide, causing crude oil prices to soar above $106 per barrel.

Last month, an armed group shut down another critical oil field, Sharara, Libya’s largest, before reopening a few days later following negotiations led by tribal leaders.

Libya’s prized light crude has long featured in the North African country’s civil war, with rival fighter groups and foreign powers jostling for control of what are Africa’s largest oil reserves.
Oil revenues are vital to the economy of Libya.

The NOC is one of the few institutions to have remained intact despite 10 years of violence and lawlessness that have gripped the country since the NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.