Libya has warned striking port workers it is prepared to deploy troops should they try to sell oil independently – after losing more than $1.5billion in less than a month.
Oil production and exports from the crisis-torn North African state have reached their lowest levels since the 2011 civil war after a series of strikes by oil and port workers.
Output has been cut to around 500,000 barrels a day, compared to peak production of 1.6million boed.
Now with violence raging in neighbouring Egypt, Libya’s prime minister Ali Zeidan has warned the country will take whatever steps necessary to stop the striking workers from disrupting supplies.
Zeidan claimed the head of the protesters, Ibrahim al-Jathran, is trying to sell oil independently of the country’s state producer.
“The head of the protesters wants to export oil for their own group, they do not want to make concessions,” he said..
“If any tanker comes to the port to pick up oil, then we will use any means to stop it,” he said.
The country’s oil minister Abdelbari al-Arusi said the OPEC member had lost around $1.6billion in oil sales since July 25.
“We have lost a lot of our clients and they are now searching for other providers,” he added.
The striking workers, who have not publicly threatened to sell oil independently, have yet to comment on President Zeidan’s claims.
Earlier this month union officials cut production at a number of oil fields in Libya over management changes at the country’s Arabian Gulf Oil company, including the 220,000 bod Ras Lanuf refinery.