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By Jamal Adel.
Tripoli, 16 March 2014:
Production at Sharara oilfield has been stopped – again – this time by Petroleum Facilities’ Guards . . .[restrict](PFG) loyal to Obari’s Supreme Council of Revolutionaries.
The oilfield was open for only four days following the withdrawal of Tuareg protestors from Sharara just over one week ago. The PFG forces, with indirect links to the protestors, resumed the blockade over unpaid salaries on Thursday.
The previous embargo imposed by Tuareg demonstrators was due to be suspended for two weeks as a show of good faith while authorities addressed their demands. A leading member among the Sharara protestors, Mahmoud Al-Ansari, who has himself supported the two-week deadline, told the Libya Herald that this had, however, proved too long for Obari’s PFG.
“The number of protesters with differing demands is increasing on a daily basis and we are all yet to see results and an end to government negligence,” he said.
Protesters at Sharara were originally demanding the removal of Obari’s old, unelected council which they said had not represented the town’s Tuareg minority. Subsequently, however, many called for national ID numbers to be distributed to those who had not been issued with them.
The manager at Sharara, Hassan Al-Sideek, said it was apparent that demonstrators were now divided. He added that in the brief period that the oilfield was recently open it had produced at total of 700,000 barrels of oil. When working at full capacity Sharara should produce 350,000 barrels per day.
National oil production has been slashed by the on-off closure of Sharara, Libya’s second largest oilfield, which began in January. Its closure equates to the loss of roughly $34 million a day. [/restrict]
