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By Houda Mzioudet and Seraj Essul.
Tripoli, 28 October 2013:
The Prime Minister has announced the reopening of the Marsa Hariga terminal at . . .[restrict]Tobruk and the restarting of oil exports in a week’s time.
Speaking during a flying visit to the eastern town, he also urged Libyans to lay down weapons. Without the massive ownership and use of them, he said, there would be no impediment to the country’s development.
In a today’s visit to the town, he met local elders and sheikhs, members of Tobruk Local Council and leaders of the Petroleum Facilities Guard. He told them that the government would look “very closely at your demands” and that centralisation would end but that no one group could dictate what should happen in Libya.
He added that the reopening of the terminal should set an example to all those who thought that it was perfectly all right act unilaterally and close pipelines and terminals. Hopefully, he said, Libya would get back on the right track and all the oil export terminals would reopen “so that the nation can move forward and develop”.
The head of Tobruk Local Council stated that the initiative to reopen Hariga terminal was aimed at helping Libya rebuild and “avoid confusion and chaos between people of Cyrenaica and the rest of Libyans”.
He said concluded that Libya’s unity was in interests of the people of Cyrenaica. But also added that that Cyrenaicans had rights “some of which need to be enacted as soon as possible”.
Back at the beginning of the month, Oil Minister Abdulbari Al-Arousi claimed that the Hariga terminal, operated by AGOCO, would be reopening very soon. It has three berths with a total loading capacity of 8,000 tons/hour.
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