Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) said the al-Feel oil field had been shut down due to a group of people disrupting the operation. Disruptions were also reported at the Zueitina oil port.
Libya's future remains uncertain after the National Oil Corporation in Tripoli announced the closure of a prominent production siteImage: Hamza Turkia/Xinhua/picture alliance
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Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced Sunday it was forced to shut down an oil field amid a political impasse that threatened to drag the North African nation back into armed conflict.
The state-run corporation said a group of people entered the al-Feel oil field in the south of Libya on Saturday, in order to halt production. The NOC did not say who the people were or whether they were armed.
NOC says meeting agreed goals 'impossible'
"On Saturday the al-Feel field was subjected to arbitrary closure attempts, due to the entry of a group of individuals and the prevention of the field's workers from continuing production," the NOC said in a post on Facebook.
Libya's impending drinking water crisis
Due to its copious oil resources, Libya was one of North Africa's richest countries. A civil war then plunged Libya into chaos. As a result, large parts of the country could now even run out of drinking water.
Image: Reuters/H. Ahmed
Lack of basic necessities
A health system crisis is looming in Libya. Particularly the western parts of the country are running out of drinkable water. 101 of 149 conduits of the water supply system have already been destroyed in the wake of the chaotic situation in the country.
Image: Reuters/E.O. Al-Fetori
Modern water pipeline system in deterioration
Libya is mainly made up of arid desert. Under dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the 1980s saw the construction of a vast pipeline system known as the "Great Man-Made River." Those pipelines supply more than 70 percent of Libya's population with fresh water. However, since the fall of Gaddafi, the system has been damaged time and again.
Image: Reuters/E.O. Al-Fetori
Civil war and chaos
Since Gaddafi was toppled in 2011, the country has descended into chaos. The internationally recognized government in Tripoli is weak and not in control of large parts of Libya. On the other hand, renegade General Khalifa Haftar and his self-styled Libya National Army (LNA) control large areas predominantly in the east of the country.
Image: AFP/M. Turkia
Target Tripoli
The LNA, in particular, uses the water pipeline system in order to push through its demands, thereby endangering Libya's population. In May, armed forces loyal to Haftar forced water supply employees to cut off the main water pipeline to the besieged capital, Tripoli, for two days, in a bid to press authorities to release a prisoner.
Image: Reuters/H. Ahmed
Water as a weapon of war
It's not only the rebel groups who exploit the water supply system to push through their interests. There are also people who dismantle wellheads, in order to sell the copper those heads are made of. The United Nations have warned all sides in Libya not to use water as a weapon of war.
Image: Reuters/E.O. Al-Fetori
Health hazards
Mostafa Omar, a UNICEF spokesman for Libya, estimates that, in future, some four million people might be deprived of access to safe drinking water if no solution to the conflict is found. This could result in an outbreak of hepatitis A, cholera, and other diarrhea illnesses.
Image: Reuters/E.O. Al-Fetori
Drinking water not fit to drink
Water is not only scarce, but it's also contaminated in many areas. Bacteria or a high content of salt make it unfit for consumption. 'Often, in fact, it's no longer drinkable water,' says Badr al-Din al-Najjar, the head of Libya's National Center for Disease Control.
Image: Reuters/E.O. Al-Fetori
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The corporation added that the field was shut down on Sunday marking the second closure in a matter of weeks, "making it impossible for the NOC to implement its contractual obligations".
The NOC said it "is obliged to declare a state of force majeure," or uncontrollable circumstances, and would no longer be able to provide crude oil to the Mellitah complex on the northwestern coast.
On the same day, two oil engineers told the Reuters news agency that protesters got into Zueitina oil port in the north of the country, and prevented a tanker from being loaded. The group said they were Zueitina residents and asked for the resignation of Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah and the NOC's chief Mustafa Sanalla.
Conflict concerns
The NOC urged rival parties to keep conflicts out of the oil sector to save its already dilapidated infrastructure.
It was not immediately apparent how the shutdowns would affect oil production. Previously, Libya's oil production was at around 1.2 million barrels a day.
The closures come as companies around the world fears a disruption of global oil trade due to sanctions against Russia.
Libya has been wrecked by conflict since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
