Monday 16 February 2015

Flow of oil from El Sarir Oilfield halted by attack on pipeline.

The flow of oil from the El Sarir Oilfield to the Mediterranean port of Hariga was halted by a bomb which blew up part of a pipeline several kilometers north of the field at about 5.00 am on Saturday 14 February 2015. Unidentified gunmen also attacked the Makruk and Bahi Oil Fields in central Libya on Friday 13 February, though they were repulsed by security guards. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but pipelines and oil terminals are an increasingly common target in a growing civil war within the country, and the oil company lacks the resources to protect the entire supply network.

Burning oil issuing from a pipeline north of the El Sarir Oilfield on 14 February 2014. Waha Oil Company.

The Waha Oil Company estimates that it can repair the damage in about three days, and states that it has enough stored oil at Hariga to meet any obligations before this time, however repeated attacks on Libya's oil infrastructure are taking a tole on production, which has fallen from about 1.6 million barrels per day prior to the overthrow of the previous regime of Muammar Gaddafi and the subsequent outbreak of civil war, to about 350 000 barrels per day in 2015. 

Damage caused to an oil facility on the Bahi Oil Field on 13 February 2015. Waha Oil Company.

See also...

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A pipeline carrying Marib Light Crude from the  Safer Oilfield to the port of Ras Isa on the Red Sea reopened on Thursday 24 July 2014, forty two days after it was blown up by unknown insurgents near the town of...


A pipeline carrying oil from the Diffra Oil Field to the Red Sea was blown up at Abyei, on the border between South Sudan and the Republic of Sudan, on...


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