Attack leads to major oil production cut

by Hadi Fornaji.

The Akakus Tripoli HQ

Tripoli, 2 September:

A Libyan-Spanish joint venture oil company has reported halted a significant part of Libyan oil production, following an attack on some of its personnel by the kateeba guards who were supposed to be protecting them.

Output of some 300,000 barrels a day of of high quality El Sahara crude from the two Akakus fields in the Murzuk Basin has been suspended since the attacks. No one was available overnight for comment at the company’s Tripoli HQ . Libya Herald was also unable to reach NOC’s main joint venture partner, Repsol in the Spanish company’s Madrid offices .

However the security situation Areas NC115 and NC186, 700 miles to the south of Tripoli, has reportedly been deteriorating, with a company official briefly kidnapped by militiamen, who have been seeking to exert control of the local operations. The fields were discovered in 2010. Akakus has a further seven other exploration blocks elsewhere in the country.

When AGOCO’s Benghazi headquarters were blockaded for 15 days by armed demonstrators, the company ended up cutting 30,000 b/d of production before the interim government moved against the demonstrators.

Share This Post