By John Lee.
The Chairman of the Tripoli-based National Oil Corporation (NOC), Mustafa Sanalla, has said Libya has lost $60 billion in production and exports as a result of disruptions at oil ports and fields over the last three years.
He added that attacks by Islamic State militants (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) have caused “tremendous” damage to the oil industry in the last two weeks:
“Their objective is to prevent the new government from stabilizing the economy ... They are not trying to occupy oil facilities, only to disable them. Their attacks have been very targeted, and they have managed to achieve a considerable level of damage with very few people. We should expect more such attacks.”
He said the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG), loyal to the internationally-recognised government in Tobruk, has failed to protect the nation’s oil facilities, and attacks by militants have cost the country more than half of its storage capacity for oil.
The NOC is currently exporting 260,000 barrels of oil a day, and it expects the loss of storage capacity at the oil ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf to curb future shipments; it has also lost 100,000 bpd of capacity due to disuse at the El Feel [El Fil, Elephant] and Sharara oil fields.
(Source: Bloomberg Business)