Armed group halts supplies to Zawiya refinery
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Maghreb Emergent
The closure of a valve by an armed group halted crude pumping to Libya’s Zawiya refinery after a dangerous rise in pipeline pressure. The National Oil Corporation says a prolonged interruption would threaten supplies to the facility by about 15,000 barrels per day.
An armed group shut a valve on the 18-inch pipeline linking the Hamada and Tahara oilfields to the Zawiya refinery in western Libya. The pressure increase caused by the closure forced technical teams to suspend pumping, according to the National Oil Corporation (NOC), Libya’s state hydrocarbons company.
A prolonged interruption would deprive the refinery of about 15,000 barrels of crude oil per day and threaten the continuity of its supplies, according to the NOC. The valve is in the Rayayna region and serves the Hamada MN-8 and MN-5 fields as well as the Tahara MN-4 field.
The Zawiya refinery can process up to 120,000 barrels per day. The NOC has not announced its shutdown or reported any fuel shortages, but it has asked the Petroleum Facilities Guard to secure the pipeline, reopen the valve and allow pumping to resume.
The closure comes six days after the Hamada and Tahara fields pipeline was brought back into service, announced on 24 October, and two days after a first blockage of a Libyan oil pipeline was reported on 31 October.
