Bloomberg quoted National Oil Corporation (NOC) chairman Mustafa Sanalla as saying that force majeure was declared on Saturday 19 August on shipments from Sharara oil field, exported through Zawiyya port.
A local armed group, which had closed the pipeline linking to the port of Sharara to demand the release from prison of one of its members, evacuated the area late Monday, Wessam Al-Messmari, an office manager at Petroleum Facilities Guard, said by phone. The PFG took control of the area and asked the state oil company to reopen the pipeline, he said. Al-Messmari had said earlier Monday that the pipeline should reopen within hours.
Today, reports indicate that the blockade has been lifted and production from Sharara has resumed. This follows ‘individual action’ by staff members at the field on 13 August which caused a temporary decline in production last week. Four incidences of disrupted oil production from al-Sharara in a single month suggest that the NOC is facing major problems sustaining production from the field while other signals throughout the Libyan oil sector suggest that staff and civilians are increasingly more compelled to strike or blockade facilities in order to force temporary solutions to problems.