Libya’s National Oil Corporation declared “force majeure” on Sunday, shutting down production at a major oil field in the country’s south.
“On Saturday… the Al-Fil 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 on Facebook.
It went on to say that the field was shut down on Sunday, the second in as many weeks, “making it impossible for the NOC to carry out its contractual obligations.”
The company claimed it would have to declare a state of force majeure because it would no longer be able to provide crude to the Mellitah complex on the country’s northwest coast.
Declaring force majeure is a legal maneuver that allows parties to release themselves from contractual commitments when unforeseen circumstances, such as war or natural catastrophes, prevent them from being met.
The closure comes after a group of individuals claimed that they would stop producing “until a government-appointed by parliament takes office in the capital,” according to Libya’s state news agency.
Libya has recently once again found itself with two rival governments after the eastern-based parliament in February appointed a new prime minister in a direct challenge to the UN-brokered government in Tripoli.
The move underlines the extent of divisions in the war-wracked country as observers fear a renewed descent into violence.
Al-Fil, some 750 kilometers southwest of Tripoli, is jointly managed by the NOC and Italian energy giant ENI and produces around 70,000 barrels of oil per day.
The field had already been forced to close temporarily in early March when an armed group shut down valves delivering crude.
Oil revenues are vital to the economy of Libya, a country sitting on Africa’s largest known reserves.
The NOC is one of the few institutions to have remained intact despite a decade of violence and lawlessness that has gripped the country since the NATO-backed uprising that toppled longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi.
